Sample records for answer multiple-choice questions

A detailed example is used to illustrate the difficulties making sense of students' answers to multiple-choicequestions. We explore how correct answers can be false indicators of student knowledge and understanding. We caution against excessive reliance on multiple-choicequestions for instructional decisions.

In this paper, we introduce a mathematical model for collaborative learning and the answering process for multiple-choicequestions. The collaborative learning model is inspired by the Ising spin model and the model for answeringmultiple-choicequestions is based on their difficulty level. An intensive simulation study predicts the possibility of…

Because of a belief that the alternatives they had chosen initially were probably correct, most subjects were reluctant to change answers, and, consequently, did so only when they were highly confident in the change. Results were that more than half the changes were correct. (RM)

The term 'locked-in'syndrome (LIS) describes a medical condition in which persons concerned are severely paralyzed and at the same time fully conscious and awake. The resulting anarthria makes it impossible for these patients to naturally communicate, which results in diagnostic as well as serious practical and ethical problems. Therefore, developing alternative, muscle-independent communication means is of prime importance. Such communication means can be realized via brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) circumventing the muscular system by using brain signals associated with preserved cognitive, sensory, and emotional brain functions. Primarily, BCIs based on electrophysiological measures have been developed and applied with remarkable success. Recently, also blood flow-based neuroimaging methods, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), have been explored in this context. After reviewing recent literature on the development of especially hemodynamically based BCIs, we introduce a highly reliable and easy-to-apply communication procedure that enables untrained participants to motor-independently and relatively effortlessly answermultiple-choicequestions based on intentionally generated single-trial fMRI signals that can be decoded online. Our technique takes advantage of the participants' capability to voluntarily influence certain spatio-temporal aspects of the blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signal: source location (by using different mental tasks), signal onset and offset. We show that healthy participants are capable of hemodynamically encoding at least four distinct information units on a single-trial level without extensive pretraining and with little effort. Moreover, real-time data analysis based on simple multi-filter correlations allows for automated answer decoding with a high accuracy (94.9%) demonstrating the robustness of the presented method. Following our 'proof of concept', the

The effect on test scores of changing answers to multiple-choicequestions was studied and compared to earlier research. The current setting was a nationally administered, in-training, specialty examination for medical residents in obstetrics and gynecology. Both low and high scorers improved their scores when they changed answers. (SW)

Three experiments, two performed in the laboratory and one embedded in a college psychology lecture course, investigated the effects of immediate versus delayed feedback following a multiple-choice exam on subsequent short answer and multiple-choice exams. Performance on the subsequent multiple-choice exam was not affected by the timing of the feedback on the prior exam; however, performance on the subsequent short answer exam was better following delayed than following immediate feedback. This was true regardless of the order in which immediate versus delayed feedback was given. Furthermore, delayed feedback only had a greater effect than immediate feedback on subsequent short answer performance following correct, confident responses on the prior exam. These results indicate that delayed feedback cues a student's prior response and increases subsequent recollection of that response. The practical implication is that delayed feedback is better than immediate feedback during academic testing. PMID:25832741

The purpose of this paper is to present results of a recent study in which students voted on multiplechoicequestions in mathematics courses of varying levels. Students used clickers to select the best answer among the choices given; in addition, they were also asked whether they were confident in their answer. In this paper we analyze data…

This article examines a technique for engaging critical thinking on multiple-choice exams. University students were encouraged to "challenge" the validity of any exam question they believed to be unfair (e.g., more than one equally correct answer, ambiguous wording, etc.). The number of valid challenges a student wrote was a better…

Three descriptive statistics (difficulty, discrimination, and reliability) of multiple-choice (MC) test items were compared to those of a new (1980s) format of machine-scored questions. The new method, answer-bank multi-digit testing (MDT), uses alphabetized lists of up to 1,000 alternatives and approximates the completion style of assessment…

An approach to assessing context dependence was applied to data from the Nelson-Denny Reading Test. The results suggest that scores on the difficult passages are inflated because the examinees can answer the questions without having to comprehend the passage. (MKM)

This study assumes that multiplechoice test items generally provide the testee with several solutions, one of which is correct and the others of which are wrong. If pupils are unable to answer a question, one would expect that the wrong choices have equal chances of being selected. In many multiplechoice items on stoichiometric calculation which…

An alternative to multiple-choice (MC) testing is suggested as it pertains to the field of radiologic technology education. General principles for writing MC questions are given and contrasted with a new type of MC question, the alternate-choice (AC) question, in which the answer choices are embedded in the question in a short form that resembles…

Multiplechoicequestions are a well-established, reliable method of assessing knowledge and are used widely in postgraduate examinations in anaesthesiology. Like other methods of assessment they have their strengths and weaknesses. With the drive for revalidation and changes in undergraduate medical education much work has been done on devising valid, reliable and feasible methods of assessment of clinical practice including the need for the use of several different methods. Different multiplechoicequestion formats have been devised and the importance of well-written multiplechoicequestions with clear assessment objectives recognized. There is controversy about the use of number-right as opposed to negative marking but, provided that the candidates know which marking system is being used, either method is satisfactory. The pass standard should be determined using criterion-based rather than norm-based referencing. Multiplechoicequestions could be used to validate continuing education and professional development from reading, possibly using web-based technology. For as long as there is a need to test knowledge in the assessment of doctors and medical undergraduates multiplechoicequestions will have a part to play, but only as one component of the assessment of clinical competence. PMID:17019162

Evaluating professional competence in medicine is a difficult but indispensable task because it makes it possible to evaluate, at different times and from different perspectives, the extent to which the knowledge, skills, and values required for exercising the profession have been acquired. Tests based on multiplechoicequestions have been and continue to be among the most useful tools for objectively evaluating learning in medicine. When these tests are well designed and correctly used, they can stimulate learning and even measure higher cognitive skills. Designing a multiplechoice test is a difficult task that requires knowledge of the material to be tested and of the methodology of test preparation as well as time to prepare the test. The aim of this article is to review what can be evaluated through multiplechoice tests, the rules and guidelines that should be taken into account when writing multiplechoicequestions, the different formats that can be used, the most common errors in elaborating multiplechoice tests, and how to analyze the results of the test to verify its quality. PMID:23489769

This article explores the reasoning employed by high school students to answer a set of multiple-choice history questions. The questions come from New York State's Global History and Geography Regents exam. The Regents exams, together with a particularly well-regarded and ambitious set of content standards, are the cornerstone of the state's…

This paper describes an easily implemented method that allows the generation and analysis of graded multiple-choice examinations. The technique, which uses standard functions in user-end software (Microsoft Excel 5+), can also produce several different versions of an examination that can be employed to prevent the reward of plagarism. The manuscript also discusses the advantages of having a graded marking system for the elimination of ambiguities, use in multi-step calculation questions, and questions that require extrapolation or reasoning. The advantages of the scrambling strategy, which maintains the same question order, is discussed with reference to student equity. The system provides a non-confrontational mechanism for dealing with cheating in large-class multiple-choice examinations, as well as providing a reward for problem solving over surface learning.

A participatory learning approach, combined with both a traditional and a competitive assessment, was used to motivate students and promote a deep approach to learning biochemistry. Students were challenged to research, author, and explain their own multiple-choicequestions (MCQs). They were also required to answer, evaluate, and discuss MCQs…

With the recent interest in competency-based education, educators are being challenged to develop more assessment opportunities. As such, there is increased demand for exam content development, which can be a very labor-intense process. An innovative solution to this challenge has been the use of automatic item generation (AIG) to develop multiple-choicequestions (MCQs). In AIG, computer technology is used to generate test items from cognitive models (i.e. representations of the knowledge and skills that are required to solve a problem). The main advantage yielded by AIG is the efficiency in generating items. Although technology for AIG relies on a linear programming approach, the same principles can also be used to improve traditional committee-based processes used in the development of MCQs. Using this approach, content experts deconstruct their clinical reasoning process to develop a cognitive model which, in turn, is used to create MCQs. This approach is appealing because it: (1) is efficient; (2) has been shown to produce items with psychometric properties comparable to those generated using a traditional approach; and (3) can be used to assess higher order skills (i.e. application of knowledge). The purpose of this article is to provide a novel framework for the development of high-quality MCQs using cognitive models. PMID:26998566

A multi-faceted model for the selection of answers for multiple-choice tests was developed from the findings of a series of exploratory studies. This model implies that answer selection should be curvilinear. A series of models were tested for fit using the chi square procedure. Data were collected from 359 elementary school students ages 9-12.…

Background: Multiplechoicequestions (MCQs) are a common method of assessment of medical students. The quality of MCQs is determined by three parameters such as difficulty index (DIF I), discrimination index (DI), and distracter efficiency (DE). Objectives: The objective of this study is to assess the quality of MCQs currently in use in pharmacology and discard the MCQs which are not found useful. Materials and Methods: A class test of central nervous system unit was conducted in the Department of Pharmacology. This test comprised 50 MCQs/items and 150 distracters. A correct response to an item was awarded one mark with no negative marking for incorrect response. Each item was analyzed for three parameters such as DIF I, DI, and DE. Results: DIF of 38 (76%) items was in the acceptable range (P = 30–70%), 11 (22%) items were too easy (P > 70%), and 1 (2%) item was too difficult (P < 30%). DI of 31 (62%) items was excellent (d > 0.35), of 12 (24%) items was good (d = 0.20–0.34), and of 7 (14%) items was poor (d < 0.20). A total of 50 items had 150 distracters. Among these, 27 (18%) were nonfunctional distracters (NFDs) and 123 (82%) were functional distracters. Items with one NFD were 11 and with two NFDs were 8. Based on these parameters, 6 items were discarded, 17 were revised, and 27 were kept for subsequent use. Conclusion: Item analysis is a valuable tool as it helps us to retain the valuable MCQs and discard the items which are not useful. It also helps in increasing our skills in test construction and identifies the specific areas of course content which need greater emphasis or clarity. PMID:27563581

Many thousands of students take standardized tests every year. In the current research, we asked whether answering standardized test questions affects students' later test performance. Prior research has shown both positive and negative effects of multiple-choice testing on later tests, with negative effects arising from students selecting incorrect alternatives on multiple-choice tests and then believing they were correct (Roediger & Marsh, 2005). In the current experiments, undergraduates and high school students answeredmultiple-choicequestions retired from SAT II tests (that are no longer in the testing pool) on biology, chemistry, U.S. history, and world history, and later answered cued-recall questions about these subjects. In 3 experiments, we observed positive testing effects: More final cued-recall questions were answered correctly if the items had appeared on the initial multiple-choice test. We also sometimes observed negative testing effects: intrusions of multiple-choice distractors as answers on the final cued-recall test. Students who scored well on the initial test benefited from taking the test, but lower achieving students showed either less benefit (undergraduates) or costs from the testing (high school students). PMID:19309212

This paper introduces five commonly used approaches to analyzing multiple-choice test data. They are classical test theory, factor analysis, cluster analysis, item response theory, and model analysis. Brief descriptions of the goals and algorithms of these approaches are provided, together with examples illustrating their applications in physics education research. We minimize mathematics, instead placing emphasis on data interpretation using these approaches.

Multiple-choicequestions are the basis of a significant portion of assessment in introductory economics courses. However, these questions, as found in course assessments, test banks, and textbooks, often fail to evaluate students' abilities to use and apply economic analysis. The authors conclude that multiple-choicequestions can be used to…

Increasing student engagement through Electronic Response Systems (clickers) has been widely researched. Its success largely depends on the quality of multiple-choicequestions used by instructors. This paper describes a pilot project that focused on the implementation of online collaborative multiple-choicequestion repository, PeerWise, in a…

This article tests the assumption that state-mandated multiple-choice history exams are a cultural tool for disseminating an "official" collective memory. Findings from a qualitative study of a collection of multiple-choicequestions that relate to the history of the Soviet Union are presented. The 263 questions all come from New York State…

Many thousands of students take standardized tests every year. In the current research, we asked whether answering standardized test questions affects students' later test performance. Prior research has shown both positive and negative effects of multiple-choice testing on later tests, with negative effects arising from students selecting…

How many incorrect response options (known as distractors) to use in multiple-choicequestions has been the source of considerable debate in the assessment literature, especially relative to influence on the likelihood of students' guessing the correct answer. This study compared distractor use by second-year dental students in three successive oral and maxillofacial pathology classes that had three different examination question formats and scoring resulting in different levels of academic performance. One class was given all multiple-choicequestions; the two other were given half multiple-choicequestions, with and without formula scoring, and half un-cued short-answerquestions. Use by at least 1 percent of the students was found to better identify functioning distractors than higher cutoffs. The average number of functioning distractors differed among the three classes and did not always correspond to differences in class scores. Increased numbers of functioning distractors were associated with higher question discrimination and greater question difficulty. Fewer functioning distractors fostered more effective student guessing and overestimation of academic achievement. Appropriate identification of functioning distractors is essential for improving examination quality and better estimating actual student knowledge through retrospective use of formula scoring, where the amount subtracted for incorrect answers is based on the harmonic mean number of functioning distractors. PMID:24319131

Analysis of test item banks in 10 auditing textbooks found that 75% of questions violated one or more guidelines for multiple-choice items. In comparison, 70% of a certified public accounting exam bank had no violations. (SK)

We are developing a national archive of multiple-choicequestions for use in the Astronomy 101 classroom. These questions are intended to supplement an instructor's implementation of Think-Pair-Share or for their assessment purposes (i.e., exams and homework). We are also developing the Question Complexity Rubric (QCR) to guide members of the Astro 101 teaching and learning community in assisting us with hierarchically ranking questions in this archive based on their conceptual complexity. Using the QCR, a score is assigned to differentiate each question based on the cognitive steps necessary to comprehensively explain the reasoning pathway to the correct answer. The lowest QCR score is given to questions with a reasoning pathway requiring only declarative knowledge. The highest QCR score is given to questions with a reasoning pathway that requires multiple connected cognitive steps. When completed, the online question archive will provide users with the utility to 1) use the QCR to score questions 2) search for and download questions based on topic and/or QCR score, and 3) add their own questions to the archive. Stop by our poster to test your skills at determining question complexity by trying out the QCR with our sample questions.

The greenhouse effect comes up in most discussions about climate and is a key concept related to climate change. Existing studies have shown that students and adults alike lack a detailed understanding of this important concept or might hold misconceptions. We studied the effectiveness of different interventions on University-level students' understanding of the greenhouse effect. Introductory level science students were tested for their pre-knowledge of the greenhouse effect using validated multiple-choicequestions, short answers and concept sketches. All students participated in a common lesson about the greenhouse effect and were then randomly assigned to one of two lab groups. One group explored an existing simulation about the greenhouse effect (PhET-lesson) and the other group worked with absorption spectra of different greenhouse gases (Data-lesson) to deepen the understanding of the greenhouse effect. All students completed the same assessment including multiplechoice, short answers and concept sketches after participation in their lab lesson. 164 students completed all the assessments, 76 completed the PhET lesson and 77 completed the data lesson. 11 students missed the contrasting lesson. In this presentation we show the comparison between the multiple-choicequestions, short answerquestions and the concept sketches of students. We explore how well each of these assessment types represents student's knowledge. We also identify items that are indicators of the level of understanding of the greenhouse effect as measured in correspondence of student answers to an expert mental model and expert responses. Preliminary data analysis shows that student who produce concept sketch drawings that come close to expert drawings also choose correct multiple-choiceanswers. However, correct multiple-choiceanswers are not necessarily an indicator that a student produces an expert-like correlating concept sketch items. Multiple-choicequestions that require detailed

The confidence level (information-referenced testing; IRT) design is an attempt to improve upon the multiplechoice format by allowing students to express a level of confidence in the answers they choose. In this study, the author evaluated student perceptions of the ease of use and accuracy of and general preference for traditional multiple…

Brenda Royce has been teaching high school chemistry and physics for nine years, and is currently science department chair at University High School in Fresno, CA, a college prep charter school on the CSU Fresno campus. She also enjoys coaching Science Olympiad, and working with science and math student teachers as a workshop leader and mentor teacher through the Science and Math Education Center at CSUF. Prior to teaching, she worked in analytical and environmental chemistry for several years. Brenda shares with us her strategy of answering students' questions by "questioning their answers."

A participatory learning approach, combined with both a traditional and a competitive assessment, was used to motivate students and promote a deep approach to learning biochemistry. Students were challenged to research, author, and explain their own multiple-choicequestions (MCQs). They were also required to answer, evaluate, and discuss MCQs written by their peers. The technology used to support this activity was PeerWise--a freely available, innovative web-based system that supports students in the creation of an annotated question repository. In this case study, we describe students' contributions to, and perceptions of, the PeerWise system for a cohort of 107 second-year biomedical science students from three degree streams studying a core biochemistry subject. Our study suggests that the students are eager participants and produce a large repository of relevant, good quality MCQs. In addition, they rate the PeerWise system highly and use higher order thinking skills while taking an active role in their learning. We also discuss potential issues and future work using PeerWise for biomedical students. PMID:21948507

For the last two years we have been developing an online national archive of multiple-choicequestions for use in the Astro 101 classroom. These questions are intended to either supplement an instructor's implementation of Think-Pair-Share or be used for assessment purposes (i.e. exams and homework). In this talk we will describe the development, testing and implementation of the Question Complexity Rubric (QCR), which is designed to guide the ranking of questions in this archive based on their conceptual complexity. Using the QCR, a score is assigned to differentiate each question based on the cognitive steps necessary to comprehensively explain the reasoning pathway to the correct answer. The lowest QCR score is given to questions with a reasoning pathway requiring only declarative knowledge whereas the highest QCR score is given to questions that require multiple pathways of multi-step reasoning. When completed, the online question archive will provide users with the utility to 1) search for and download questions based on subject and average QCR score, 2) use the QCR to score questions, and 3) add their own questions to the archive. We will also discuss other potential applications of the QCR, such as how it informs our work in developing and testing of survey instruments by allowing us to calibrate the range of question complexity. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0715517, a CCLI Phase III Grant for the Collaboration of Astronomy Teaching Scholars (CATS). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Plausible distractors are important for accurate measurement of knowledge via multiple-choicequestions (MCQs). This study demonstrates the impact of higher distractor functioning on validity and reliability of scores obtained on MCQs. Freeresponse (FR) and MCQ versions of a neurohistology practice exam were given to four cohorts of Year 1 medical…

This experiment examined the effects of headings and adjunct questions embedded in expository text on the delayed multiple-choice test performance of college students. Subjects in the headings-present group performed significantly better on the retention test than did the subjects in the headings-absent group. The main effect of adjunct questions…

The relationship between students' use of PeerWise, an online tool that facilitates peer learning through student-generated content in the form of multiple-choicequestions (MCQs), and achievement, as measured by their performance in the end-of-module examinations, was investigated in 5 large early-years science modules (in physics, chemistry…

Multiplechoice (MC) questions from a graduate physiology course were evaluated by cognitive-psychology (but not physiology) experts, and analyzed statistically, in order to test the independence of content expertise and cognitive complexity ratings of MC items. Integration of higher order thinking into MC exams is important, but widely known to…

The potential value of a multiple-choicequestion-construction instructional strategy for the support of students' learning of physics experiments was examined in the study. Forty-two university freshmen participated in the study for a whole semester. A constant comparison method adopted to categorize students' qualitative data indicated that the…

Is offered the set of criteria for assessing efficiency of the process forming the answers to multiple-choice test items. To increase accuracy of computer-assisted testing results, it is suggested to assess dynamics of the process of forming the final answer using the following factors: loss of time factor and correct choice factor. The model…

The natural language database query system incorporated in the Knobs Interactive Planning System comprises a dictionary driven parser, APE-II, and script interpreter whch yield a conceptual dependency as a representation of the meaning of user input. A conceptualisation pattern matching production system then determines and executes a procedure for extracting the desired information from the database. In contrast to syntax driven q-a systems, e.g. those based on atn parsers, APE-II is driven bottom-up by expectations associated with word meanings. The goals of this approach include utilising similar representations for questions with similar meanings but widely varying surface structures, developing a powerful mechanism for the disambiguation of words with multiple meanings and the determination of pronoun referents, answeringquestions which require inferences to be understood, and interpreting ellipses and ungrammatical statements. The Knobs demonstration system is an experimental, expert system for air force mission planning applications. 16 refs.

Ever since its inception 100 years back, multiplechoice items have been widely used as a method of assessment. It has certain inherent limitations such as inability to test higher cognitive skills, element of guesswork while answering, and issues related with marking schemes. Various marking schemes have been proposed in the past but they are not balanced, skewed, and complex, which are based on mathematical calculations which are typically not within the grasp of medical personnel. Type X questions has many advantages being easy to construct, can test multiple concepts/application/facets of a topic, cognitive skill of various level of hierarchy can be tested, and unlike Type K items, they are free from complicated coding. In spite of these advantages, they are not in common use due to complicated marking schemes. This is the reason we explored the aspects of methods of evaluation of multiple correct options multiplechoicequestions and came up with the simple, practically applicable, nonstringent but logical scoring system for the same. The rationale of the illustrated marking scheme is that it takes into consideration the distracter recognition ability of the examinee rather than relying on the ability only to select the correct response. Thus, examinee's true knowledge is tested, and he is rewarded accordingly for selecting a correct answer and omitting a distracter. The scheme also penalizes for not recognizing a distracter thus controlling guessing behavior. It is emphasized that if the illustrated scoring scheme is adopted, then Type X questions would come in common practice. PMID:27127312

Ever since its inception 100 years back, multiplechoice items have been widely used as a method of assessment. It has certain inherent limitations such as inability to test higher cognitive skills, element of guesswork while answering, and issues related with marking schemes. Various marking schemes have been proposed in the past but they are not balanced, skewed, and complex, which are based on mathematical calculations which are typically not within the grasp of medical personnel. Type X questions has many advantages being easy to construct, can test multiple concepts/application/facets of a topic, cognitive skill of various level of hierarchy can be tested, and unlike Type K items, they are free from complicated coding. In spite of these advantages, they are not in common use due to complicated marking schemes. This is the reason we explored the aspects of methods of evaluation of multiple correct options multiplechoicequestions and came up with the simple, practically applicable, nonstringent but logical scoring system for the same. The rationale of the illustrated marking scheme is that it takes into consideration the distracter recognition ability of the examinee rather than relying on the ability only to select the correct response. Thus, examinee's true knowledge is tested, and he is rewarded accordingly for selecting a correct answer and omitting a distracter. The scheme also penalizes for not recognizing a distracter thus controlling guessing behavior. It is emphasized that if the illustrated scoring scheme is adopted, then Type X questions would come in common practice. PMID:27127312

The purpose of this study is to propose a method of factor analysis for analyzing contingency tables developed from the data of unlimited multiple-choicequestions. This method assumes that the element of each cell of the contingency table has a binominal distribution and a factor analysis model is applied to the logit of the selection probability. Scree plot and WAIC are used to decide the number of factors, and the standardized residual, the standardized difference between the sample, and the proportion ratio, is used to select items. The proposed method was applied to real product impression research data on advertised chips and energy drinks. Since the results of the analysis showed that this method could be used in conjunction with conventional factor analysis model, and extracted factors were fully interpretable, and suggests the usefulness of the proposed method in the study of psychology using unlimited multiple-choicequestions. PMID:26964368

With the advent of online test banks and large introductory classes, instructors have often turned to textbook publisher-generated multiple-choicequestion (MCQ) exams in their courses. Multiple-choicequestions are often divided into categories of factual or applied, thereby implicating levels of cognitive processing. This investigation examined…

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This study examined the effects of being taught the Mayfield's Four Questionsmultiple-choice test-taking strategy on the perceived self-efficacy and multiple-choice test scores of nursing students in a two-year associate degree program. Experimental and control groups were chosen by stratified random sampling. Subjects completed the 10-statement…

The potential value of a multiple-choicequestion-construction instructional strategy for the support of students’ learning of physics experiments was examined in the study. Forty-two university freshmen participated in the study for a whole semester. A constant comparison method adopted to categorize students’ qualitative data indicated that the influences of multiple-choicequestion construction were evident in several significant ways (promoting constructive and productive studying habits; reflecting and previewing course-related materials; increasing in-group communication and interaction; breaking passive learning style and habits, etc.), which, worked together, not only enhanced students’ comprehension and retention of the obtained knowledge, but also helped distil a sense of empowerment and learning community within the participants. Analysis with one-group t-tests, using 3 as the expected mean, on quantitative data further found that students’ satisfaction toward past learning experience, and perceptions toward this strategy’s potentials for promoting learning were statistically significant at the 0.0005 level, while learning anxiety was not statistically significant. Suggestions for incorporating question-generation activities within classroom and topics for future studies were rendered.

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This study investigates the degree to which grades based solely on constructed-response (CR) questions differ from grades based solely on multiple-choice (MC) questions. If CR questions are to justify their higher costs, they should produce different grade outcomes than MC questions. We use a data set composed of thousands of observations on…

The answer sheets of 122 nursing students showed that 119 changed at least 1 answer; 93.3% of those who changed answers either gained or did not lose points by changing; changing answers on psychiatric nursing exams made more difference than on medical-surgical tests. However, those who made the smallest number of changes tended to have higher…

Critical thinking is a complex abstraction that defies homogeneous interpretation. This means that no operational definition is universal and no critical thinking measurement tool is all encompassing. Instructors will likely find evidence based strategies to facilitate thinking skills only as numerous research efforts from multiple disciplines accumulate. This study focuses on a question writing exercise designed to help anatomy and physiology students. Students were asked to design multiplechoicequestions that combined course concepts in new and novel ways. Instructions and examples were provided on how to construct these questions and student attempts were sorted into levels one through three of Bloom's Cognitive Taxonomy (Bloom et al. 1956). Students submitted their question designs weekly and received individual feedback as to how they might improve. Eight course examinations were created to contain questions that modeled the Bloom's Cognitive Taxonomy levels that students were attempting. Students were assessed on their course examination performance as well as performance on a discipline independent critical thinking test called the California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST). The performance of students in this study was compared to students from two previous years that took the same course but did not have the question writing activity. Results suggest that students do not improve their ability to answer critical thinking multiplechoicesquestions when they practice the task of creating such problems. The effect of class level on critical thinking is examined and it appears that the longer a student has attended college the better the performance on both discipline specific and discipline independent critical thinking questions. The data were also used to analyze students who improved their course examination grades in the second semester of this course. There is a pattern to suggest that students who improve their performance on course examinations

The newly developed computerized Constructive Multiple-choice Testing system is introduced. The system combines short answer (SA) and multiple-choice (MC) formats by asking examinees to respond to the same question twice, first in the SA format, and then in the MC format. This manipulation was employed to collect information about the two…

Learning to program is known to be difficult for novices. High attrition and high failure rates in foundation-level programming courses undertaken at tertiary level in Computer Science programs, are commonly reported. A common approach to evaluating novice programming ability is through a combination of formative and summative assessments, with the latter typically represented by a final examination. Preparation of such assessment is driven by instructor perceptions of student learning of programming concepts. This in turn may yield instructor perspectives of summative assessment that do not necessarily correlate with student expectations or abilities. In this article, we present results of our study around instructor perspectives of summative assessment for novice programmers. Both quantitative and qualitative data have been obtained via survey responses from programming instructors with varying teaching experience, and from novice student responses to targeted examination questions. Our findings highlight that most of the instructors believed that summative assessment is, and is meant to be, a valid measure of a student's ability to program. Most instructors further believed that Multiple-choiceQuestions (MCQs) provide a means of testing a low level of understanding, and a few added qualitative comments to suggest that MCQs are easy questions, and others refused to use them at all. There was no agreement around the proposition that if a question was designed to test a low level of skill, or a low level in a hierarchy of a body of knowledge, that such a question should or would be found to be easy by the student. To aid our analysis of assessment questions, we introduced four measures: Syntax Knowledge; Semantic Knowledge; Problem Solving Skill and the Level of Difficulty of the Problem. We applied these measures to selected examination questions, and have identified gaps between the instructor perspectives of what is considered to be an easy question and also in

Answering consumer questions is an important aspect of egg marketing. Consumers expect those they contact to be able to address their situation and help find answers. Topics of general consumer concerns include: proper storage, safe handling, food safety, and food quality. With the vast array of ...

Despite a lack of face validity, there continues to be heavy reliance on objective paper-and-pencil measures of clinical competence. Among these measures, the most common item formats are patient management problems (PMPs) and three types of multiplechoicequestions (MCQs): one-best-answer (A-types); matching questions (M-types); and multiple true/false questions (X-types). The purpose of this study is to compare the reliability, validity and efficiency of these item formats with particular focus on whether MCQs and PMPs measure different aspects of clinical competence. Analyses revealed reliabilities of 0.72 or better for all item formats; the MCQ formats were most reliable. Similarly, efficiency analyses (reliability per unit of testing time) demonstrated the superiority of MCQs. Evidence for validity obtained through correlations of both programme directors' ratings and criterion group membership with item format scores also favoured MCQs. More important, however, is whether MCQs and PMPs measure the same or different aspects of clinical competence. Regression analyses of the scores on the validity measures (programme directors' ratings and criterion group membership) indicated that MCQs and PMPs seem to be measuring predominantly the same thing. MCQs contribute a small unique variance component over and above PMPs, while PMPs make the smallest unique contribution. As a whole, these results indicate that MCQs are more efficient, reliable and valid than PMPs. PMID:4010571

The "Test Development Notebook" is a resource designed for the preparation of tests of literal comprehension for students in grades 1 through 12. This volume contains 200 multiple-choice cloze exercises taken from textbooks in science, and the accompanying answer key. Each exercise carries the code letter of the section to which it belongs. The…

The multiple-choicequestion (MCQ) is the foundation of knowledge assessment in K-12, higher education, and standardized entrance exams (including the GRE, MCAT, and DAT). However, standard MCQ exams are limited with respect to the types of questions that can be asked when there are only five choices. MCQs offering additional choices more…

The aim of this study was to assess the utility of long term faculty development programs (FDPs) in order to improve the quality of multiplechoicequestions (MCQs) items' writing. This was a quasi-experimental study, conducted with newly joined faculty members. The MCQ items were analyzed for difficulty index, discriminating index, reliability, Bloom's cognitive levels, item writing flaws (IWFs) and MCQs' nonfunctioning distractors (NFDs) based test courses of respiratory, cardiovascular and renal blocks. Significant improvement was found in the difficulty index values of pre- to post-training (p = 0.003). MCQs with moderate difficulty and higher discrimination were found to be more in the post-training tests in all three courses. Easy questions were decreased from 36.7 to 22.5%. Significant improvement was also reported in the discriminating indices from 92.1 to 95.4% after training (p = 0.132). More number of higher cognitive level of Bloom's taxonomy was reported in the post-training test items (p<0.0001). Also, NFDs and IWFs were reported less in the post-training items (p<0.02). The MCQs written by the faculties without participating in FDPs are usually of low quality. This study suggests that newly joined faculties need active participation in FDPs as these programs are supportive in improving the quality of MCQs' items writing. PMID:25828516

The aim of this study was to assess the utility of long term faculty development programs (FDPs) in order to improve the quality of multiplechoicequestions (MCQs) items' writing. This was a quasi-experimental study, conducted with newly joined faculty members. The MCQ items were analyzed for difficulty index, discriminating index, reliability, Bloom's cognitive levels, item writing flaws (IWFs) and MCQs' nonfunctioning distractors (NFDs) based test courses of respiratory, cardiovascular and renal blocks. Significant improvement was found in the difficulty index values of pre- to post-training (p = 0.003). MCQs with moderate difficulty and higher discrimination were found to be more in the post-training tests in all three courses. Easy questions were decreased from 36.7 to 22.5%. Significant improvement was also reported in the discriminating indices from 92.1 to 95.4% after training (p = 0.132). More number of higher cognitive level of Bloom's taxonomy was reported in the post-training test items (p<0.0001). Also, NFDs and IWFs were reported less in the post-training items (p<0.02). The MCQs written by the faculties without participating in FDPs are usually of low quality. This study suggests that newly joined faculties need active participation in FDPs as these programs are supportive in improving the quality of MCQs' items writing. PMID:25828516

The quality of a multiple true-false (MTF) examination paper in public health medicine for 149 clinical medical students was evaluated using predefined performance criteria to offer guidelines for improvement of such a paper. There were 35 questions, each with five true-false branches, and the performance of the overall best 25% of candidates was compared for individual items with that of the overall worst 25%. To improve discrimination between best and worst candidates, 60% of items needed changes, and several indicators were used to identify how, usually because the branch was too easy (26%), unpopular (16%) or too hard (10%). A number of guidelines for writing good MTF questions and for improving them are suggested. The inequity is illustrated of marking systems which do not allocate a negative mark for incorrect answers equal in size to the positive mark for correct ones, with zero for unanswered questions or 'don't know' answers. PMID:7845259

Long training workshops on the writing of exam questions have been shown to be effective; however, the effectiveness of short workshops needs to be demonstrated. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a one-day, seven-hour faculty development workshop at the College of Dentistry, King Saud University, Saudi Arabia, on the quality of multiple-choicequestions (MCQs). Kirkpatrick's four-level evaluation model was used. Participants' satisfaction (Kirkpatrick's Level 1) was evaluated with a post-workshop questionnaire. A quasi-experimental, randomized separate sample, pretest-posttest design was used to assess the learning effect (Kirkpatrick's Level 2). To evaluate transfer of learning to practice (Kirkpatrick's Level 3), MCQs created by ten faculty members as a result of the training were assessed. To assess Kirkpatrick's Level 4 regarding institutional change, interviews with three key leaders of the school were conducted, coded, and analyzed. A total of 72 course directors were invited to and attended some part of the workshop; all 52 who attended the entire workshop completed the satisfaction form; and 22 of the 36 participants in the experimental group completed the posttest. The results showed that all 52 participants were highly satisfied with the workshop, and significant positive changes were found in the faculty members' knowledge and the quality of their MCQs with effect sizes of 0.7 and 0.28, respectively. At the institutional level, the interviews demonstrated positive structural changes in the school's assessment system. Overall, this one-day item-writing faculty workshop resulted in positive changes at all four of Kirkpatrick's levels; these effects suggest that even a short training session can improve a dental school's assessment of its students. PMID:26522635

This study investigated, using pretest-posttest quasi-experimental research design, the effectiveness of guided multiplechoice objective questions test on students' academic achievement in Senior School Mathematics, by school location, in Delta State Capital Territory, Nigeria. The sample comprised 640 Students from four coeducation secondary…

The research presented in this paper is part of a project investigating assessment practices, funded by the Scottish Funding Council. Using established principles of good assessment and feedback, the use of online formative and summative multiplechoice tests (MCT's) was piloted to support independent and self-directed learning and improve…

This paper reports a multi-method approach for examining the cognitive level of multiple-choice items used in a medical pathology course at a large midwestern medical school. Analysis of the standard item analysis data and think-out-loud reports of a sample of students completing a 66 item examination were used to test assumptions related to the…

In this paper, we present a supervised learning method to seek out answers to the most frequently asked descriptive questions: reason, method, and definition questions. Most of the previous systems for questionanswering focus on factoids, lists or definitional questions. However, descriptive questions such as reason questions and method questions are also frequently asked by users. We propose a system for these types of questions. The system conducts an answer search as follows. First, we analyze the user's question and extract search keywords and the expected answer type. Second, information retrieval results are obtained from an existing search engine such as Yahoo or Google. Finally, we rank the results to find snippets containing answers to the questions based on a ranking SVM algorithm. We also propose features to identify snippets containing answers for descriptive questions. The features are adaptable and thus are not dependent on answer type. Experimental results show that the proposed method and features are clearly effective for the task.

Multiplechoicequestions play an important role in training and evaluating biomedical science students. However, the resource intensive nature of question generation limits their open availability, reducing their contribution to evaluation purposes mainly. Although applied-knowledge questions require a complex formulation process, the creation of concrete-knowledge questions (i.e., definitions, associations) could be assisted by the use of informatics methods. We envisioned a novel and simple algorithm that exploits validated knowledge repositories and generates concrete-knowledge questions by leveraging concepts' relationships. In this manuscript we present the development and validation of a prototype which successfully produced meaningful concrete-knowledge questions, opening new applications for existing knowledge repositories, potentially benefiting students of all biomedical sciences disciplines. PMID:26958222

Multiplechoicequestions play an important role in training and evaluating biomedical science students. However, the resource intensive nature of question generation limits their open availability, reducing their contribution to evaluation purposes mainly. Although applied-knowledge questions require a complex formulation process, the creation of concrete-knowledge questions (i.e., definitions, associations) could be assisted by the use of informatics methods. We envisioned a novel and simple algorithm that exploits validated knowledge repositories and generates concrete-knowledge questions by leveraging concepts’ relationships. In this manuscript we present the development and validation of a prototype which successfully produced meaningful concrete-knowledge questions, opening new applications for existing knowledge repositories, potentially benefiting students of all biomedical sciences disciplines. PMID:26958222

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Given the range of fuel cycle goals and criteria, and the wide range of fuel cycle options, how can the set of options eventually be narrowed in a transparent and justifiable fashion? It is impractical to develop all options. We suggest an approach that starts by considering a range of goals for the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) and then posits seven questions, such as whether Cs and Sr isotopes should be separated from spent fuel and, if so, what should be done with them. For each question, we consider which of the goals may be relevant to eventually providing answers. The AFCI program has both ''outcome'' and ''process'' goals because it must address both waste already accumulating as well as completing the fuel cycle in connection with advanced nuclear power plant concepts. The outcome objectives are waste geologic repository capacity and cost, energy security and sustainability, proliferation resistance, fuel cycle economics, and safety. The process objectives are rea diness to proceed and adaptability and robustness in the face of uncertainties.

In the University of Oulu, the competencies of fourth-year dental students have traditionally been assessed with a written examination before they go to work for the first time as dentists outside the Institute of Dentistry. In 2009, the objective structural clinical examination (OSCE) modified with multiple-choicequestions was introduced as a tool for assessing clinical competencies. The aim of the study was to evaluate the validity of the modified OSCE (m-OSCE) by measuring the attitude of examiners (teachers) and dental students towards the m-OSCE and to evaluate whether the OSCE is preferred to the written examination in the assessment of knowledge and clinical skills. Additionally, the aim was to evaluate the reliability of the multiple-choice examination. Altogether 30 students (86%) and 11/12 examiners (92%) responded to the questionnaire. Most of the students considered the multiple-choicequestions easy, but complained about the complex formulation of the questions. The test stations were easy for 87% of the students, but the time allocated was too short. Most of the students (73%) and examiners (91%) preferred the m-OSCE to the written examination. All students and examiners found the immediate assessment of the tasks good. Based on the evaluations of m-OSCE, it could be concluded that both students and examiners preferred the m-OSCE to the pure written examination in assessment, which indicate that m-OSCE had good face validity. Combining multiple methods in assessment of knowledge and clinical skills whilst simultaneously taking into account the feasibility and available resources provides more valid results. PMID:22251338

The Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) program has both “outcome” and “process” goals because it must address both waste already accumulating as well as completing the fuel cycle in connection with advanced nuclear power plant concepts. The outcome objectives are waste geological repository capacity and cost, energy security and sustainability, proliferation resistance, fuel cycle economics, and safety. The process objectives are readiness to proceed and adaptability and robustness in the face of uncertainties. A classic decision-making approach to such a multi-attribute problem would be to weight individual quantified criteria and calculate an overall figure of merit. This is inappropriate for several reasons. First, the goals are not independent. Second, the importance of different goals varies among stakeholders. Third, the importance of different goals is likely to vary with time, especially the “energy future.” Fourth, some key considerations are not easily or meaningfully quantifiable at present. Instead, at this point, we have developed 16 questions the AFCI program should answer and suggest an approach of determining for each whether relevant options improve meeting each of the program goals. We find that it is not always clear which option is best for a specific question and specific goal; this helps identify key issues for future work. In general, we suggest attempting to create as many win-win decisions (options that are attractive or neutral to most goals) as possible. Thus, to help clarify why the program is exploring the options it is, and to set the stage for future narrowing of options, we have developed 16 questions, as follows: · What are the AFCI program goals? · Which potential waste disposition approaches do we plan for? · What are the major separations, transmutation, and fuel options? · How do we address proliferation resistance? · Which potential energy futures do we plan for? · What potential external triggers do we

Describes the seven main components of QUEST, a cognitive model of questionanswering that attempts to simulate the answers adults produce when they answer different types of questions, both closed class and open class. Illustrates how the model could be applied to different types of knowledge structures, including causal networks, goal…

Online information seekers make heavy use of websites that accept their natural language questions. This study compared the three types of such websites: social question and answer (Q&A), digital reference services, and ask-an-expert services. Questions reflecting daily life, research, and crisis situations were posed to high use websites of all three types. The resulting answers' characteristics were analyzed in terms of speed, transparency, formality, and intimacy. The results indicate that social Q&A websites excel in speed, ask-an-expert websites in intimacy, and digital reference services in transparency and formality.

This pamphlet is designed to answer many of the questions that have arisen about nuclear power plants and the environment. It is organized into a question and answer format, with the questions taken from those most often asked by the public. Topics include regulation of nuclear power sources, potential dangers to people's health, whether nuclear…

Five of the medical schools in the University of London collaborated in administering one multiplechoicequestion paper in obstetrics and gynecology, and results showed differences in performance between the five schools on questions and alternatives within questions. The rank order of the schools may result from differences in teaching methods.…

This speech explains education voucher programs and responds to criticisms of such programs. The education voucher system is described as one that questions traditional structures and methods while it equalizes opportunities to purchase education, fosters federally funded and controlled alternative school settings and programs, and gives parents…

Research in QuestionAnswering has focused on the quality of information retrieval or extraction using the metrics of precision and recall to judge success; these metrics drive toward finding the specific best answer(s) and are best supportive of a lookup type of search. These do not address the opportunity that users? natural language questions present for exploratory interactions. In this paper, we present an integrated QuestionAnswering environment that combines a visual analytics tool for unstructured text and a state-of-the-art query expansion tool designed to compliment the cognitive processes associated with an information analysts work flow. Analysts are seldom looking for factoid answers to simple questions; their information needs are much more complex in that they may be interested in patterns of answers over time, conflicting information, and even related non-answer data may be critical to learning about a problem or reaching prudent conclusions. In our visual analytics tool, questions result in a comprehensive answer space that allows users to explore the variety within the answers and spot related information in the rest of the data. The exploratory nature of the dialog between the user and this system requires tailored evaluation methods that better address the evolving user goals and counter cognitive biases inherent to exploratory search tasks.

With the blooming of online social media applications, Community QuestionAnswering (CQA) services have become one of the most important online resources for information and knowledge seekers. A large number of high quality question and answer pairs have been accumulated, which allow users to not only share their knowledge with others, but also interact with each other. Accordingly, volumes of efforts have been taken to explore the questions and answers retrieval in CQA services so as to help users to finding the similar questions or the right answers. However, to our knowledge, less attention has been paid so far to question popularity in CQA. Question popularity can reflect the attention and interest of users. Hence, predicting question popularity can better capture the users’ interest so as to improve the users’ experience. Meanwhile, it can also promote the development of the community. In this paper, we investigate the problem of predicting question popularity in CQA. We first explore the factors that have impact on question popularity by employing statistical analysis. We then propose a supervised machine learning approach to model these factors for question popularity prediction. The experimental results show that our proposed approach can effectively distinguish the popular questions from unpopular ones in the Yahoo! Answersquestion and answer repository. PMID:24837851

Culled from the answers of physical education teachers and coaches, this booklet attempts to indicate the scope of health problems and suggests some directions which the solutions may take. It is divided into three parts. Part 1, Health and Safety in Activity Programs, answersquestions on first aid, excused absences, and desirability of…

This book presents background information on the major Olympic events with a question-answer format. Events considered include track and field, swimming, diving, boxing, weightlifting, the equestrian events, and gymnastics. Line drawings illustrate the text. (MM)

E-learning approaches have received increasing attention in recent years. Accordingly, a number of tools have become available to assist the nonexpert computer user in constructing and managing virtual learning environments, and implementing computer-based and/or online procedures to support pedagogy. Both commercial and free packages are now available, with new developments emerging periodically. Commercial products have the advantage of being comprehensive and reliable, but tend to require substantial financial investment and are not always transparent to use. They may also restrict pedagogical choices due to their predetermined ranges of functionality. With these issues in mind, several authors have argued for the pedagogical benefits of developing freely available, open source e-learning resources, which can be shared and further developed within a community of educational practitioners. The present paper supports this objective by presenting a set of methods, along with supporting freely available, downloadable, open source programming code, to allow administration of online multiplechoicequestion assessments to students. PMID:17958158

Biomedical professionals have access to a huge amount of literature, but when they use a search engine, they often have to deal with too many documents to efficiently find the appropriate information in a reasonable time. In this perspective, question-answering (QA) engines are designed to display answers, which were automatically extracted from the retrieved documents. Standard QA engines in literature process a user question, then retrieve relevant documents and finally extract some possible answers out of these documents using various named-entity recognition processes. In our study, we try to answer complex genomics questions, which can be adequately answered only using Gene Ontology (GO) concepts. Such complex answers cannot be found using state-of-the-art dictionary- and redundancy-based QA engines. We compare the effectiveness of two dictionary-based classifiers for extracting correct GO answers from a large set of 100 retrieved abstracts per question. In the same way, we also investigate the power of GOCat, a GO supervised classifier. GOCat exploits the GOA database to propose GO concepts that were annotated by curators for similar abstracts. This approach is called deep QA, as it adds an original classification step, and exploits curated biological data to infer answers, which are not explicitly mentioned in the retrieved documents. We show that for complex answers such as protein functional descriptions, the redundancy phenomenon has a limited effect. Similarly usual dictionary-based approaches are relatively ineffective. In contrast, we demonstrate how existing curated data, beyond information extraction, can be exploited by a supervised classifier, such as GOCat, to massively improve both the quantity and the quality of the answers with a +100% improvement for both recall and precision. Database URL: http://eagl.unige.ch/DeepQA4PA/ PMID:26384372

Biomedical professionals have access to a huge amount of literature, but when they use a search engine, they often have to deal with too many documents to efficiently find the appropriate information in a reasonable time. In this perspective, question-answering (QA) engines are designed to display answers, which were automatically extracted from the retrieved documents. Standard QA engines in literature process a user question, then retrieve relevant documents and finally extract some possible answers out of these documents using various named-entity recognition processes. In our study, we try to answer complex genomics questions, which can be adequately answered only using Gene Ontology (GO) concepts. Such complex answers cannot be found using state-of-the-art dictionary- and redundancy-based QA engines. We compare the effectiveness of two dictionary-based classifiers for extracting correct GO answers from a large set of 100 retrieved abstracts per question. In the same way, we also investigate the power of GOCat, a GO supervised classifier. GOCat exploits the GOA database to propose GO concepts that were annotated by curators for similar abstracts. This approach is called deep QA, as it adds an original classification step, and exploits curated biological data to infer answers, which are not explicitly mentioned in the retrieved documents. We show that for complex answers such as protein functional descriptions, the redundancy phenomenon has a limited effect. Similarly usual dictionary-based approaches are relatively ineffective. In contrast, we demonstrate how existing curated data, beyond information extraction, can be exploited by a supervised classifier, such as GOCat, to massively improve both the quantity and the quality of the answers with a +100% improvement for both recall and precision. Database URL: http://eagl.unige.ch/DeepQA4PA/. PMID:26384372

This study was designed to compare the performance of medical students in physiology when assessed by multiplechoicequestions (MCQs) and short essay questions (SEQs). The study also examined the influence of factors such as age, sex, O/level grades and JAMB scores on performance in the MCQs and SEQs. A structured questionnaire was administered to 264 medical students' four months before the Part I MBBS examination. Apart from personal data of each student, the questionnaire sought information on the JAMB scores and GCE O' Level grades of each student in English Language, Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics. The physiology syllabus was divided into five parts and the students were administered separate examinations (tests) on each part. Each test consisted of MCQs and SEQs. The performance in MCQs and SEQs were compared. Also, the effects of JAMB scores and GCE O/level grades on the performance in both the MCQs and SEQs were assessed. The results showed that the students performed better in all MCQ tests than in the SEQs. JAMB scores and O' level English Language grade had no significant effect on students' performance in MCQs and SEQs. However O' level grades in Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics had significant effects on performance in MCQs and SEQs. Inadequate knowledge of physiology and inability to present information in a logical sequence are believed to be major factors contributing to the poorer performance in the SEQs compared with MCQs. In view of the finding of significant association between performance in MCQs and SEQs and GCE O/level grades in science subjects and mathematics, it was recommended that both JAMB results and the GCE results in the four O/level subjects above may be considered when selecting candidates for admission into the medical schools. PMID:11713989

"From Asking To Answering: Making Questions Explicit" describes a pedagogical procedure the author has used in writing classes (expository, technical and creative) to help students better understand the purpose, and effect, of text-questions. It accomplishes this by means of thirteen discrete categories (e.g., CLAIMS, COMMITMENT, ANAPHORA, or…

Although conscience has been the focus of reflection for centuries, fundamental questions regarding its organization have not been fully answered. To address those questions, the authors applied structural equation modeling techniques to longitudinal data comprising multiple behavioral measures of children's conscience, obtained in parallel…

This dissertation surveys question-answer patterns in Mohawk conversation. After discussing some theoretical issues, a morpho-syntactic description of questions is presented and the description is expanded to the level of discourse. Although the approach followed is modelled on generative semantics, it departs from it in significant ways, in order…

Answers to 27 questions about aeronautics, space, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are provided in this pamphlet. Among the topics dealt with in these questions are: costs of the space program; NASA's role in aeronautics; benefits received from the space program; why the United States hasn't developed means of rescuing…

The authors offer a classification technique to make a quantitative skills rubric more operational, with the groupings of multiple-choicequestions to match the student learning levels in knowledge, calculation, quantitative reasoning, and analysis. The authors applied this classification technique to the mid-term exams of an introductory finance…

Large class size is an issue in testing at all levels of Education. As a panacea to this, multiplechoice test formats has become very popular. This case study was designed to diagnose pre-service teachers' competency in constructing questions (IQT); direct questions (DQT); and best answer (BAT) varieties of multiplechoice items. Subjects were 88…

In this essay, I explore an exam format that pairs multiple-choicequestions with required rationales. In a space adjacent to each multiple-choicequestion, students explain why or how they arrived at the answer they selected. This exercise builds the critical thinking skill known as metacognition, thinking about thinking, into an exam that also…

National Inst. of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIH), Bethesda, MD.

This fact sheet answers general questions about Marfan syndrome, a heritable condition that affects the connective tissue. It describes the characteristics of the disorder, the diagnostic process, and ways to manage symptoms. Characteristics include: (1) people with Marfan syndrome are typically very tall, slender, and loose jointed; (2) more than…

Fifty-eight tables provide a breakdown of answers to a survey responded to by 45 experts in the medication treatment of psychiatric and behavioral problems in people with mental retardation. Questions address treatment of specific disorders, ratings of various medications for specific disorders or symptoms, and preferences in mood stabilizers,…

Twelve tables provide a breakdown of answers to a survey responded to by 48 experts in the psychosocial treatment of psychiatric and behavioral problems in people with mental retardation. Questions address treatment of self-injurious or aggressive behavior, specific psychiatric disorders, specific target symptoms, use of applied behavior analysis…

This booklet attempts to answer briefly the most common questions about American Indians asked by students, people who believe they have Indian ancestors, individuals who want to visit or volunteer to work on a reservation, or those who want to know the current Indian policy. Separate sections outline President Reagan's American Indian policy;…

This {open_quotes}Management of PCBs Questions and Answers{close_quotes} has been developed from a presentation given by Dr. John Smith of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the transcribed question and answer session which followed the presentation. Dr. Smith was featured at the first DOE complex-wide PCB Focus Group meeting held in San Francisco, California in December 1992. The meeting was attended by representatives from field elements who were actively involved in the management of PCBs. The meeting served as a forum for the exchange of information and discussion of PCB management issues. This document has been prepared as one of several guidance documents developed by the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Policy and Assistance (EH-41) (formerly the Office of Environmental Guidance, EH-23) to assist DOE elements in their PCB management programs. This document is organized into three parts: (1) an introduction describing the conception and development of this document, (2) a summary of Dr. Smith`s presentation, and (3) the question and answer session.

contingent with the ATLAS experiment at CERN, answers many of your questions about the Higgs boson. Ian invited viewers to send in questions about the Higgs via email, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube in an "Ask a Scientist" video posted July 3: http://youtu.be/xhuA3wCg06s CERN's July 4 announcement that the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider have discovered a particle "consistent with the Higgs boson" has raised questions about what scientists have found and what still remains to be found -- and what it all means. If you have suggestions for future "Ask a Scientist" videos, post them below or send ideas to askascientist@lbl.gov

contingent with the ATLAS experiment at CERN, answers many of your questions about the Higgs boson. Ian invited viewers to send in questions about the Higgs via email, Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube in an "Ask a Scientist" video posted July 3: http://youtu.be/xhuA3wCg06s CERN's July 4 announcement that the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider have discovered a particle "consistent with the Higgs boson" has raised questions about what scientists have found and what still remains to be found -- and what it all means. If you have suggestions for future "Ask a Scientist" videos, post them below or send ideas to askascientist@lbl.gov

Each physics problem used in evaluating the effectiveness of Randomized MultipleChoice (RMC) tests was stated in the conventional manner and was followed by several multiplechoice items corresponding to the steps in a written solution but presented in random order. Students were instructed to prepare a written answer and to use it to answer the…

Ever since it was discovered that biological membranes have a core of a bimolecular sheet of lipid molecules, lipid bilayers have been a model laboratory for investigating physicochemical and functional properties of biological membranes. Experimental and theoretical models help the experimental scientist to plan experiments and interpret data. Theoretical models are the theoretical scientist's preferred toys to make contact between membrane theory and experiments. Most importantly, models serve to shape our intuition about which membrane questions are the more fundamental and relevant ones to pursue. Here we review some membrane models for lipid self-assembly, monolayers, bilayers, liposomes, and lipid-protein interactions and illustrate how such models can help answeringquestions in modern lipid cell biology. PMID:21610116

Ever since it was discovered that biological membranes have a core of a bimolecular sheet of lipid molecules, lipid bilayers have been a model laboratory for investigating physicochemical and functional properties of biological membranes. Experimental and theoretical models help the experimental scientist to plan experiments and interpret data. Theoretical models are the theoretical scientist’s preferred toys to make contact between membrane theory and experiments. Most importantly, models serve to shape our intuition about which membrane questions are the more fundamental and relevant ones to pursue. Here we review some membrane models for lipid self-assembly, monolayers, bilayers, liposomes, and lipid–protein interactions and illustrate how such models can help answeringquestions in modern lipid cell biology. PMID:21610116

Students with learning or learning-related disabilities frequently struggle with multiplechoice assessments due to difficulty discriminating between items, filtering out distracters, and framing a mental best answer. This Practice Brief suggests accommodations and strategies that disability service providers can utilize in conjunction with…

As part of an examination required by the Alberta (Canada) Department of Education in order for 12th grade students to receive a diploma in French, this booklet contains the 80 multiplechoicequestions portion of Part B, the language and literature component of the June 1988 tests. Representing the genres of poetry, short story, the novel, and…

While randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are the gold standard for research, many research questions cannot be ethically and practically answered using an RCT. Comparative effectiveness research (CER) techniques are often better suited than RCTs to address the effects of an intervention under routine care conditions, an outcome otherwise known as effectiveness. CER research techniques covered in this section include: effectiveness-oriented experimental studies such as pragmatic trials and cluster randomized trials, treatment response heterogeneity, observational and database studies including adjustment techniques such as sensitivity analysis and propensity score analysis, systematic reviews and meta-analysis, decision analysis, and cost effectiveness analysis. Each section describes the technique and covers the strengths and weaknesses of the approach. PMID:25677015

Brief analyses are provided of presentations made at a conference, held at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, which addressed questions and answers relating to research and education. Conference sessions explored the role of research in relation to educational practices with special focus on theory, research, issues and application.…

Two experiments investigated the relationship of verification to the answering of yes-no questions. Subjects verified simple statements or answered simple questions. Various proposals concerning the relative difficulty of answeringquestions and verifying statements were considered, and a model was proposed. (SW)

Examines the semantic relationships in consumers' health-related questions, physician-provided answers, and between questions and answers with the purpose of supporting the design of health consumer question-answering systems. The information present in the text was expressed using a "pilot" ontology that was based on the semantic relationships…

What happens when speakers try to "dodge" a question they would rather not answer by answering a different question? In 4 studies, we show that listeners can fail to detect dodges when speakers answer similar--but objectively incorrect--questions (the "artful dodge"), a detection failure that goes hand-in-hand with a failure to rate dodgers more…

Occasionally people may attempt to judge whether a question can be answered today, or if not, if it can be answered in the future. For example, a person may consider whether enough is known about the dangers of living close to a nuclear plant, or to a major electricity cable, for them to be willing to do so, and state-authorities may consider whether questions about the dangers of new technologies have been answered, or in a reasonable future can be, for them to be willing to invest money in research aiming develop such technologies. A total of 476 participants, for each of 22 knowledge questions, either judged whether it was answerable today (current answerability), or judged when it could be answered (future answerability). The knowledge questions varied with respect to the expected consensus concerning their answerability: consensus questions (high expected consensus), non-consensus questions (lower expected consensus), and illusion questions (formulated to appear answerable, but with crucial information absent). The questions' judged answerability level on the two scales was highly correlated. For both scales, consensus questions were rated more answerable than the non-consensus questions, with illusion questions falling in-between. The result for the illusion questions indicates that a feeling of answerability can be created even when it is unlikely that somebody can come up with an answer. The results also showed that individual difference variables influenced the answerability judgments. Higher levels of belief in certainty of knowledge, mankind's knowledge, and mankind's efficacy were related to judging the non-consensus questions as more answerable. Participants rating the illusion questions as answerable rated the other answerabilityquestions as more, or equally, answerable compared to the other participants and showed tendencies to prefer a combination of more epistemic default processing and less intellectual processing. PMID:26793164

Multiple-choicequestions draw criticism because many people perceive they test only recall or atomistic, surface-level objectives and do not require students to think. Although this can be the case, it does not have to be that way. Susan M. Brookhart suggests that multiple-choicequestions are a useful part of any teacher's questioning repertoire…

Occasionally people may attempt to judge whether a question can be answered today, or if not, if it can be answered in the future. For example, a person may consider whether enough is known about the dangers of living close to a nuclear plant, or to a major electricity cable, for them to be willing to do so, and state-authorities may consider whether questions about the dangers of new technologies have been answered, or in a reasonable future can be, for them to be willing to invest money in research aiming develop such technologies. A total of 476 participants, for each of 22 knowledge questions, either judged whether it was answerable today (current answerability), or judged when it could be answered (future answerability). The knowledge questions varied with respect to the expected consensus concerning their answerability: consensus questions (high expected consensus), non-consensus questions (lower expected consensus), and illusion questions (formulated to appear answerable, but with crucial information absent). The questions’ judged answerability level on the two scales was highly correlated. For both scales, consensus questions were rated more answerable than the non-consensus questions, with illusion questions falling in-between. The result for the illusion questions indicates that a feeling of answerability can be created even when it is unlikely that somebody can come up with an answer. The results also showed that individual difference variables influenced the answerability judgments. Higher levels of belief in certainty of knowledge, mankind’s knowledge, and mankind’s efficacy were related to judging the non-consensus questions as more answerable. Participants rating the illusion questions as answerable rated the other answerabilityquestions as more, or equally, answerable compared to the other participants and showed tendencies to prefer a combination of more epistemic default processing and less intellectual processing. PMID:26793164

Participation in rigorous high school courses such as Advanced Placement (AP®) Physics increases the likelihood of college success, especially for students who are traditionally underserved. Tackling difficult multiple-choice exams should be part of any AP program because well-constructed multiple-choicequestions, such as those on AP exams and on the Force Concept Inventory,2 are particularly good at rooting out common and persisting student misconceptions. Additionally, there are barriers to multiple-choice performance that have little to do with content mastery. For example, a student might fail to read the question thoroughly, forget to apply a reasonableness test to the answer, or simply work too slowly.

Objective: To identify the most frequent obstacles preventing physicians from answering their patient-care questions and the most requested improvements to clinical information resources. Design: Qualitative analysis of questions asked by 48 randomly selected generalist physicians during ambulatory care. Measurements: Frequency of reported obstacles to answering patient-care questions and recommendations from physicians for improving clinical information resources. Results: The physicians asked 1,062 questions but pursued answers to only 585 (55%). The most commonly reported obstacle to the pursuit of an answer was the physician's doubt that an answer existed (52 questions, 11%). Among pursued questions, the most common obstacle was the failure of the selected resource to provide an answer (153 questions, 26%). During audiotaped interviews, physicians made 80 recommendations for improving clinical information resources. For example, they requested comprehensive resources that answerquestions likely to occur in practice with emphasis on treatment and bottom-line advice. They asked for help in locating information quickly by using lists, tables, bolded subheadings, and algorithms and by avoiding lengthy, uninterrupted prose. Conclusion: Physicians do not seek answers to many of their questions, often suspecting a lack of usable information. When they do seek answers, they often cannot find the information they need. Clinical resource developers could use the recommendations made by practicing physicians to provide resources that are more useful for answering clinical questions. PMID:15561792

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that seeks answers to two main questions: How do we know? and How do we know we know? This paper is concerned with how four major schools of thought have addressed these questions and the implications that their answers to these questions have for education. The paper begins by discussing how four major…

What happens when speakers try to "dodge" a question they would rather not answer by answering a different question? In 4 studies, we show that listeners can fail to detect dodges when speakers answer similar-but objectively incorrect-questions (the "artful dodge"), a detection failure that goes hand-in-hand with a failure to rate dodgers more negatively. We propose that dodges go undetected because listeners' attention is not usually directed toward a goal of dodge detection (i.e., Is this person answering the question?) but rather toward a goal of social evaluation (i.e., Do I like this person?). Listeners were not blind to all dodge attempts, however. Dodge detection increased when listeners' attention was diverted from social goals toward determining the relevance of the speaker's answers (Study 1), when speakers answered a question egregiously dissimilar to the one asked (Study 2), and when listeners' attention was directed to the question asked by keeping it visible during speakers' answers (Study 4). We also examined the interpersonal consequences of dodge attempts: When listeners were guided to detect dodges, they rated speakers more negatively (Study 2), and listeners rated speakers who answered a similar question in a fluent manner more positively than speakers who answered the actual question but disfluently (Study 3). These results add to the literatures on both Gricean conversational norms and goal-directed attention. We discuss the practical implications of our findings in the contexts of interpersonal communication and public debates. PMID:21517203

This dissertation examines the semantic interpretation of various types of DPs in so-called concealed-question (CQ) constructions, as "Bill's phone number" in the sentence "John knows Bill's phone number". The peculiar characteristic of DP-CQs is that they are interpreted as having the meaning of an embedded question. So, for instance, the…

The concept of a hierarchy of evidence is useful in rapid electronic searching to answerquestions arising during the natural course of clinical practice. The answerablequestion often begins "What is the evidence that ..." and, when focused on a treatment, usually includes a population, an intervention, a comparison group, and an outcome, often…

Reader, writers, and teachers of expository prose should pay closer attention to the question and answer (Q&A) format's theoretical and practical implications. The Q&A format contributes to the seemingly endless succession of questions and answers and is part of that flight from one signifier to another characteristic of postmodern culture. The…

The question and answer booklet highlights the provisions of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 which was designed to protect the best interests of Indian children and to promote the stability and security of Indian tribes and families. The booklet attempts to answer 28 important questions concerning title I of the Act. Examples of questions…

This booklet on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) attempts to provide an overview of the FBI's functions. Presented in a question and answer format, the 99 questions and answers discuss the federal government agency's history, administrative matters, jurisdiction, criminal investigations, security matters, foreign counter-intelligence, and…

This publication provides answers to basic questions to help school board members more fully address the complexities of the planning, design, and construction process in order to maximize the goal of student success. The 101 questions and answers are in the areas of: facility planning; learning environment; information technology; safe schools;…

One large study in medical education has reported that the choice of question format (or question content) could introduce a gender bias, with men outperforming women on questions with a true-false component or that required knowledge of anatomy or physiology. The purpose of our study was to ascertain whether this finding is also true in veterinary medical education. Two veterinary student cohorts were analyzed across four different modules over a three-year period (804 questions in total). The results of the study show that the women's and men's performance did not differ in any of the question types analyzed across any module or year. When students' (both women and men) overall average performance on different question types was compared with their performance on standard multiple-choicequestions (MCQs), performance levels increased when students were asked to answer MCQs that contained an image-based prop (IMCQ) such as a photograph, X-ray image, or diagram. In contrast, students' performance was consistently lower when answering assertion-reason questions (ARQs), and this performance could not be explained by the demographic makeup of the two cohorts analyzed. When comparing standard MCQs with MCQs that contained a true-false question stem, no specific trend in the data could be determined. In conclusion, this study suggests that the short-answerquestion style does not bias against one gender in veterinary medical education, but that overall students do perform differently according to question type and, in particular, less well when ARQs are used in examinations. PMID:21805937

... different parts of the world. Although every family's values are different, privacy is an important concept for all kids to learn. Parents should ... understand sexuality within the context of your family's values. Body ... issues are an important part of human development. If you have questions ...

Intended for use by parents and teachers of preschool age children, this short booklet provides some guidelines to follow when introducing sex education to young children. It discusses issues such as where to begin, how to encourage the child to ask questions about sex, how to handle sex-related problems, child molestation, nudity and the family,…

Instructors can use both "multiple-choice" (MC) and "constructed response" (CR) questions (such as short answer, essay, or problem-solving questions) to evaluate student understanding of course materials and principles. This article begins by discussing the advantages and concerns of using these alternate test formats and…

Tracking performance through reporting is a basic obligation for responsible lab management. But creative, visionary leadership requires that lab leaders ask better questions, reach better conclusions, and transform those conclusions into action to achieve better results. The clinical lab has always had the breadth of data to contribute to that process. With analytics, lab leaders now have the depth and control to effect positive change as well. PMID:26299148

Macroautophagy (hereafter autophagy) is currently one of the areas of medical life sciences attracting a great interest because of its pathological implications and therapy potentials. The discovery of the autophagy-related genes (ATGs) has been the key event in this research field because their study has led to the acquisition of new knowledge about the mechanism of this transport pathway. In addition, the investigation of these genes in numerous model systems has revealed the central role that autophagy plays in maintaining the cell homeostasis. This process carries out numerous physiological functions, some of which were unpredicted and thus surprising. Here, we will review some of the questions about the mechanism and function of autophagy that still remain unanswered, and new ones that have emerged from the recent discoveries.

This paper proposes a new text-based questionanswering system. It models knowledge in documents and questions with conceptual graph formalism (CGF). To prepare knowledge to be modeled, natural language processing is applied to the text using OpenNLP, and then syntactic and semantic information is realized using VerbNet and WordNet. We handle different types of questions, especially questions constructed with wh- pronouns, and questions constructed with "how", and we propose a model to represent them in CGF so that their target is realized and marked. Each question's type has different conceptual graph (CG) representations; thus, for each question, many CGs are generated using formulas. Some of these formulas are introduced here. The projection operator is used to compare a question's CG to a sentence's CG, and then the exact answer is extracted from the part of the sentence's CG that has been projected under the question target's concept.

Numerous data sets collect information on patients with paediatric cardiovascular disease, including paediatric heart failure and transplant patients. This review discusses methodologies available for linking and integrating information across data sets, which may help facilitate answering important questions in the field of paediatric heart failure and transplant that cannot be answered with individual data sets or single-centre data alone. PMID:26377723

With 23 states and the District of Columbia having enacted medical marijuana laws as of August 2014, it is important that psychiatrists be able to address questions about medical marijuana from patients, families, and other health care professionals. The author discusses the limited medical literature on synthetic cannabinoids and medical marijuana. The synthetic cannabinoids dronabinol and nabilone are approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for nausea and vomiting associated with cancer chemotherapy and appetite stimulation in patients with wasting diseases such as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Results of clinical trials of these agents for other conditions have varied widely thus far. In addition, few data are available on the use of the marijuana plant as a medical treatment. The author concludes that there is a clear need for additional research on possible medical uses of cannabinoids. He notes that discussions with prospective medical marijuana patients should emphasize the importance of communication among all parties due to the possible side effects of treatment with marijuana and its potential to interact with other medications the patient may be taking. Facilitating a thorough substance abuse consultation is one of most positive ways that psychiatrists, especially addiction psychiatrists, can make an impact as medical marijuana becomes increasingly common. A careful review of the prospective medical marijuana user's substance use history, co-occurring medical and psychiatric conditions, family history, and psychosocial stressors is essential in evaluating the potential risks of medical marijuana for these patients. The author concludes that psychiatrists can have a significant impact by increasing the likelihood that medical marijuana will be used in a safe and responsible way. PMID:25226202

With 23 states and the District of Columbia having enacted medical marijuana laws as of August 2014, it is important that psychiatrists be able to address questions about medical marijuana from patients, families, and other health care professionals. The author discusses the medical literature on synthetic cannabinoids and medical marijuana. The synthetic cannabinoids dronabinol and nabilone are approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration for nausea and vomiting associated with cancer chemotherapy and appetite stimulation in patients with wasting diseases such as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Results of clinical trials of these agents for other conditions have varied widely thus far. In addition, few data are available on the use of the marijuana plant as a medical treatment. The author concludes that there is a clear need for additional research on possible medical uses of cannabinoids. He notes that discussions with prospective medical marijuana patients should emphasize the importance of communication among all parties due to the possible side effects of treatment with marijuana and its potential to interact with other medications the patient may be taking. Facilitating a thorough substance abuse consultation is one of most positive ways that psychiatrists, especially addiction psychiatrists, can make an impact as medical marijuana becomes increasingly common. A careful review of the prospective medical marijuana user's substance use history, co-occurring medical and psychiatric conditions, family history, and psychosocial stressors is essential in evaluating the potential risks of medical marijuana for these patients. The author concludes that psychiatrists can have a significant impact by increasing the likelihood that medical marijuana will be used in a safe and responsible way. PMID:25226202

NUREG/CR-6204 is a collection of questions and answers that were originally issued in seven sets and which pertain to revised 10 CFR Part 20. The questions came from both outside and within the NRC. The answers were compiled and provided by NRC staff within the offices of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, Nuclear Regulatory Research, the Office of State Programs, and the five regional offices. Although all of the questions and answers have been reviewed by attorneys in the NRC Office of the General Counsel, they do not constitute official legal interpretations relevant to revised 10 CFR Part 20. The questions and answers do, however, reflect NRC staff decisions and technical options on aspects of the revised 10 CFR Part 20 regulatory requirements. This NUREG is being made available to encourage communication among the public, industry, and NRC staff concerning the major revisions of the NRC`s standards for protection against radiation.

In this follow-up "Ask Berkeley Lab" video, energy efficiency expert Iain Walker answers some of your questions about home energy efficiency. How do you monitor which appliances use the most energy? Should you replace your old windows? Are photovoltaic systems worth the cost? What to do about a leaky house? And what's the single biggest energy user in your home? Watch the video to get the answers to these and more questions.

In this follow-up "Ask Berkeley Lab" video, energy efficiency expert Iain Walker answers some of your questions about home energy efficiency. How do you monitor which appliances use the most energy? Should you replace your old windows? Are photovoltaic systems worth the cost? What to do about a leaky house? And what's the single biggest energy user in your home? Watch the video to get the answers to these and more questions.

With the blooming of Web 2.0, Community QuestionAnswering (CQA) services such as Yahoo! Answers (http://answers.yahoo.com), WikiAnswer (http://wiki.answers.com), and Baidu Zhidao (http://zhidao.baidu.com), etc., have emerged as alternatives for knowledge and information acquisition. Over time, a large number of question and answer (Q&A) pairs with high quality devoted by human intelligence have been accumulated as a comprehensive knowledge base. Unlike the search engines, which return long lists of results, searching in the CQA services can obtain the correct answers to the question queries by automatically finding similar questions that have already been answered by other users. Hence, it greatly improves the efficiency of the online information retrieval. However, given a question query, finding the similar and well-answeredquestions is a non-trivial task. The main challenge is the word mismatch between question query (query) and candidate question for retrieval (question). To investigate this problem, in this study, we capture the word semantic similarity between query and question by introducing the topic modeling approach. We then propose an unsupervised machine-learning approach to finding similar questions on CQA Q&A archives. The experimental results show that our proposed approach significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art methods. PMID:24595052

With the blooming of Web 2.0, Community QuestionAnswering (CQA) services such as Yahoo! Answers (http://answers.yahoo.com), WikiAnswer (http://wiki.answers.com), and Baidu Zhidao (http://zhidao.baidu.com), etc., have emerged as alternatives for knowledge and information acquisition. Over time, a large number of question and answer (Q&A) pairs with high quality devoted by human intelligence have been accumulated as a comprehensive knowledge base. Unlike the search engines, which return long lists of results, searching in the CQA services can obtain the correct answers to the question queries by automatically finding similar questions that have already been answered by other users. Hence, it greatly improves the efficiency of the online information retrieval. However, given a question query, finding the similar and well-answeredquestions is a non-trivial task. The main challenge is the word mismatch between question query (query) and candidate question for retrieval (question). To investigate this problem, in this study, we capture the word semantic similarity between query and question by introducing the topic modeling approach. We then propose an unsupervised machine-learning approach to finding similar questions on CQA Q&A archives. The experimental results show that our proposed approach significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art methods. PMID:24595052

Question-answering (QA) systems, as have been presented and evaluated in several TREC conferences, are the next generation of search engines. They combine 'traditional' Information Retrieval (IR) with Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Knowledge Engineering techniques to provide shorter, more precise answers to natural language questions. We study here the feasibility of such a system for French in the health care domain. In this purpose, we collected a corpus of student questions in oral surgery. We examined two enabling conditions: on the IR side, how to select the right keywords in a question to identify relevant material on the Web for answering this question, a prerequisite for success; and on the NLP side, whether the contents of the questions fit the conceptual model of an existing QA prototype, a favorable condition for rapid implementation. A manual Web search enabled us to devise automatable principles for building IR queries for these questions. Besides, we could design a semantic model, using UMLS Semantic Network relations, which is consistent with our prototype and covers 90% of the questions. However, the high specialization of the domain and the clinical orientation of the questions, joined with the more limited resources online in the French language, may restrain the quantity of Web material available for answering these questions. PMID:14664030

The authors assessed the effects of using "none of the above" as an option in a 40-item, general-knowledge multiple-choice test administered to undergraduate students. Examinees who selected "none of the above" were given an incentive to write the correct answer to the question posed. Using "none of the above" as the…

Students are often encouraged to generate and answer their own questions on to-be-remembered material, because this interactive process is thought to enhance memory. But does this strategy actually work? In three experiments, all participants read the same passage, answeredquestions, and took a test to get accustomed to the materials in a…

Postsecondary education often requires students to use higher-order cognitive skills (HOCS) such as analysis, evaluation, and creation as they assess situations and apply what they have learned during lecture to the formulation of solutions. Summative assessment of these abilities is often accomplished using short-answerquestions (SAQs). Quandary was used to create feedback-oriented interactive online exercises to help students strengthen certain HOCS as they actively constructed answers to questions concerning the regulation of 1) metabolic rate, 2) blood sugar, 3) erythropoiesis, and 4) stroke volume. Each exercise began with a SAQ presenting an endocrine dysfunction or a physiological challenge; students were prompted to answer between six and eight multiple-choicequestions while building their answer to the SAQ. Student outcomes on the SAQ sections of summative exams were compared before and after the introduction of the online tool and also between subgroups of students within the posttool-introduction population who demonstrated different levels of participation in the online exercises. While overall SAQ outcomes were not different before and after the introduction of the online exercises, once the SAQ tool had become available, those students who chose to use it had improved SAQ outcomes compared with those who did not. PMID:26113627

Postsecondary education often requires students to use higher-order cognitive skills (HOCS) such as analysis, evaluation, and creation as they assess situations and apply what they have learned during lecture to the formulation of solutions. Summative assessment of these abilities is often accomplished using short-answerquestions (SAQs). Quandary was used to create feedback-oriented interactive online exercises to help students strengthen certain HOCS as they actively constructed answers to questions concerning the regulation of 1) metabolic rate, 2) blood sugar, 3) erythropoiesis, and 4) stroke volume. Each exercise began with a SAQ presenting an endocrine dysfunction or a physiological challenge; students were prompted to answer between six and eight multiple-choicequestions while building their answer to the SAQ. Student outcomes on the SAQ sections of summative exams were compared before and after the introduction of the online tool and also between subgroups of students within the posttool-introduction population who demonstrated different levels of participation in the online exercises. While overall SAQ outcomes were not different before and after the introduction of the online exercises, once the SAQ tool had become available, those students who chose to use it had improved SAQ outcomes compared with those who did not. PMID:26113627

The Lau v. Nichols decision and its implications for school districts are explained in this question and answer format paper. Lau compliance plans are described in full. The number of students necessary for development of a plan or program, what a Lau plan should include, and appropriate program types are detailed. (MK)

An unfair labor practice is the violation of any right granted employees, unions, or employers by a collective bargaining law. This guide answers common questions about unfair labor practices in public sector labor relations. The booklet is divided into two sections, unfair employer labor practices and unfair union labor practices. The section…

This booklet answers briefly the most common questions about American Indians asked by students, teachers, researchers, librarians, government agencies, and the news media. Sections outline the history, responsibilities, educational programs, and housing programs of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA); President Bush's American Indian policy;…

This paper seeks to analyse discourse patterns of legal opinions in two languages and cultures--namely, Legal Problem QuestionAnswers (LPQs) in the UK academic writing context and Pareri (Ps) in the Italian professional writing context. The qualitative and quantitative analysis of discourse in this paper, based on the tenets of genre analysis,…

The computational model of questionanswering proposed by a computer program, QUALM, is a theory of conceptual information processing based on models of human memory organization. It has been developed from the perspective of natural language processing in conjunction with story understanding systems. The processes in QUALM are divided into four…

This conversation analytic study describes some specific interactional contexts in which native English-speaking teachers produce "oh" in known-answerquestion sequences in English language classes. The data for this study come from 10 video-recorded Japanese primary school English language class sessions. The analysis identified three…

As Response-to-Intervention (RTI) models continue to attract a great deal of attention, school and district leaders need to understand the structures needed, the personnel required, the challenges faced, and rewards realized from RTI. "Questions and Answers About RTI: A Guide to Success" is designed to guide a school or district through the…

Though the testing-effect can be boosted by including a restudy phase after answering test questions, we do not know precisely why it does so. One possible explanation is being tested here. The present study measured attention allocation during initial reading and rereading with a remote eye tracker to gain information on the cognitive processes…

The present study examined the influence of a human or computer "partner" on the production of fillers ("um" and "uh") during a question and answer task. Experiment 1 investigated whether or not responding to a human partner as opposed to a computer partner results in a higher rate of filler production. Participants…

This booklet has been developed to help the layman understand and evaluate the various efforts being undertaken to utilize nuclear power for the benefit of mankind. The question and answer format is utilized. Among the topics discussed are: Our Needs for Electricity; Sources of Radiation; Radiation from Nuclear Power Plants; Biological Effects of…

Describes infectious mononucleosis (IM), examining viral transmission and infection, clinical features, diagnosis, and management. Focuses on answers to several commonly asked questions about IM in sport (e.g., when it is safe to resume sports after IM, how often fatigue or depression are related to earlier bouts of IM, and how often IM is…

This guide to preventing self-injurious behavior, in question-and-answer format, is intended for parents, teachers, and other caregivers of people with disabilities. It describes the more common types of self-injurious behavior, discusses methods for identifying causes of self injury, and outlines interventions. Specifically, the guide covers: (1)…

This documents contains commonly asked questions and corresponding answers (Qs&As) on the CERCLA Site Assessment process. These questions were derived from DOE element responses to a solicitation calling for the identification of (unresolved) issues associated with the conduct of CERCLA site assessments, and from inquiries received during a series of Site Assessment Workshops provided by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Office of Environmental Guidance, RCRA/CERCLA Division (EH-231). Answers to these questions were prepared by EH-231 in cooperation with the EPA Federal Facilities Team in Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, Site Assessment Branch, and in coordination with the Office of Environmental Compliance, Facilities Compliance Division (EH-222).

The purposes of the present study were to ascertain whether or not two particular formatting characteristics influenced seventh grade student performance on math tests. One research question focused on the effects of decimal positioning in multiplechoice options for computational items. In a second question, labeling format was compared with…

Recent technological advances have given rise to an information-gathering tool unparalleled by any in human history-the Internet. Understanding how access to such a powerful informational tool influences how we think represents an important question for psychological science. In the present investigation we examined the impact of access to the Internet on the metacognitive processes that govern our decisions about what we "know" and "don't know." Results demonstrated that access to the Internet influenced individuals' willingness to volunteer answers, which led to fewer correct answers overall but greater accuracy when an answer was offered. Critically, access to the Internet also influenced feeling-of-knowing, and this accounted for some (but not all) of the effect on willingness to volunteer answers. These findings demonstrate that access to the Internet can influence metacognitive processes, and contribute novel insights into the operation of the transactive memory system formed by people and the Internet. PMID:26340105

System safety is primarily concerned with epistemic questions, that is, questions concerning knowledge and the degree of confidence that can be placed in that knowledge. For systems with which human experience is long, such as roads, bridges, and mechanical devices, knowledge about what is required to make the systems safe is deep and detailed. High confidence can be placed in the validity of that knowledge. For other systems, however, with which human experience is comparatively short, such as those that rely in part or in whole on software, knowledge about what is required to ensure safety tends to be shallow and general. The confidence that can be placed in the validity of that knowledge is consequently low. In a previous paper, we enumerated a collection of foundational epistemic questions concerning software system safety. In this paper, we review and refine the questions, discuss some difficulties that attend to answering the questions today, and speculate on possible research to improve the situation.

...The OCC, Board, FDIC, FCA, and NCUA (collectively, the Agencies) are finalizing two new questions and answers, one relating to insurable value and one relating to force placement, and withdrawing one question and answer regarding insurable value. The two final questions and answers supplement the ``Interagency Questions and Answers Regarding Flood Insurance'' (Interagency Questions and......

Extended matching sets questions (EMSQs) are a form of multiple-choicequestion (MCQ) consisting of a stem (the question or scenario) with an extended number of possible answers. Although there is no consensus on their absolute format, for the purpose of this paper a multiple-choicequestion with ten or more alternative answers is considered to be…

Too many multiple-choice tests are administered without an evaluative component. Teachers often return student assessments or Scantron cards--computerized bubble forms--without review, assuming that the printing of the correct answer will suffice. However, a more constructivist approach to follow up multiple-choice tests can make for more…

The Multi-source Integrated Platform for Answering Clinical Questions (MiPACQ) is a QA pipeline that integrates a variety of information retrieval and natural language processing systems into an extensible questionanswering system. We present the system's architecture and an evaluation of MiPACQ on a human-annotated evaluation dataset based on the Medpedia health and medical encyclopedia. Compared with our baseline information retrieval system, the MiPACQ rule-based system demonstrates 84% improvement in Precision at One and the MiPACQ machine-learning-based system demonstrates 134% improvement. Other performance metrics including mean reciprocal rank and area under the precision/recall curves also showed significant improvement, validating the effectiveness of the MiPACQ design and implementation. PMID:22195068

The Multi-source Integrated Platform for Answering Clinical Questions (MiPACQ) is a QA pipeline that integrates a variety of information retrieval and natural language processing systems into an extensible questionanswering system. We present the system’s architecture and an evaluation of MiPACQ on a human-annotated evaluation dataset based on the Medpedia health and medical encyclopedia. Compared with our baseline information retrieval system, the MiPACQ rule-based system demonstrates 84% improvement in Precision at One and the MiPACQ machine-learning-based system demonstrates 134% improvement. Other performance metrics including mean reciprocal rank and area under the precision/recall curves also showed significant improvement, validating the effectiveness of the MiPACQ design and implementation. PMID:22195068

The nature of processes triggering protostellar collapse; cooling mechanisms necessary for subsequent continued contraction; means for shedding angular momentum from rotating clouds; ways in which contracting gas clouds divest themselves of embedded magnetic fields; and fragmentation of massive clouds to form rich stellar aggregates are discussed. Infrared and submillimeter observations from space should answerquestions on contemporary star formation and on the appearance of the earliest stars in primordial galaxies.

The changing world of health care finance has led to a paradigm shift in health care with health care being viewed more and more as a commodity. Many have argued that such a paradigm shift is incompatible with the very nature of medicine and health care. But such arguments raise more questions than they answer. There are important assumptions about basic concepts of health care and markets that frame such arguments. PMID:10472817

The purpose of this study was to describe the use of an Internet delivered question and answer column among patients with schizophrenia. The column was developed for research purposes. The study sample consisted of patients (N = 100) admitted to acute inpatient psychiatric care in two hospital districts. Descriptive data were collected from the column to which a nurse replied within 3 days and analysed using qualitative content analysis. The column had four to five questions weekly. The most common age of users was 18-24 years, and the gender distribution was almost equal. Column use was heaviest among students (44%) and least among unemployed people (19%). Out of 85 questions or comments sent to the column, 25 (29%) were related to program training and the remaining 60 (71%) were related to medication (31%), illness and tests (25%), other questions or comments (9%), daily life and coping with it (4%), and places to receive treatment (2%). An Internet delivered question and answer column can be included in the care of patients with schizophrenia. However, it requires a new type of basic and additional education in the field of mental health care in order for nurses to be able to provide nursing via the Internet forum. PMID:24960233

The exponential growth in the volume of publications in the biomedical domain has made it impossible for an individual to keep pace with the advances. Even though evidence-based medicine has gained wide acceptance, the physicians are unable to access the relevant information in the required time, leaving most of the questions unanswered. This accentuates the need for fast and accurate biomedical questionanswering systems. In this paper we introduce INDOC--a biomedical questionanswering system based on novel ideas of indexing and extracting the answer to the questions posed. INDOC displays the results in clusters to help the user arrive the most relevant set of documents quickly. Evaluation was done against the standard OHSUMED test collection. Our system achieves high accuracy and minimizes user effort. PMID:18274647

Comprehensive surveys are often the best way to answer fundamental questions about the Universe, but it is typically difficult to get reliable results unless great care is taken to develop and understand the sample. By observing a complete sample of red and brown dwarfs (spectral types mid-M to mid-L) in the southern sky within 15 pc --- defined by trigonometric parallax --- the RECONS (www.recons.org, REsearch Consortium On Nearby Stars) team is searching for answers to three basic questions: (1) where are the breaks in the luminosity and mass functions at the stellar/substellar border? (2) what are the populations of stellar, brown dwarf, and Jovian planets orbiting the red dwarfs that account for 75% of all stars? and (3) do the smallest stars exhibit long-term activity cycles like our Sun? We identify a sample of more than 300 of the nearest red and brown dwarfs using a combination of astrometry (parallaxes, proper motions, orbits), and photometry (plate BRI from SuperCOSMOS, VRI from our CCD observations, JHK from 2MASS, and new WISE data). Our observing program, now in its 14th year, is carried out at the CTIO/SMARTS 0.9m telescope. This is the largest long-term study of members of the solar neighborhood in the southern hemisphere, so it provides unparalleled astrometric and photometric time coverage for the nearest red and brown dwarfs. By focusing on a carefully vetted sample of the Sun's neighbors, we can hope to reveal the real answers to the three questions posed above. This effort is supported by the NSF through grants AST-0908402 and AST-1109445, and via observations made possible by the SMARTS Consortium.

An efficient means of storing data in a first-order predicate calculus theorem-proving system is described. The data structure is oriented for large scale question-answering (QA) systems. An algorithm is outlined which uses the data structure to unify a given literal in parallel against all literals in all clauses in the data base. The data structure permits a compact representation of data within a QA system. Some suggestions are made for heuristics which can be used to speed-up the unification algorithm in systems.

This paper describes an institutional approach taken to build a primary care reference portal. The objective for the site is to make access to and use of clinical reference faster and easier and to facilitate the use of evidence-based answers in daily practice. Reference objects were selected and metadata applied to a core set of sources. Metadata were used to search, sort, and filter results and to define deep-linked queries and structure the interface. User feedback resulted in an expansion in the scope of reference objects to meet the broad spectrum of information needs, including patient handouts and interactive risk management tools. RESULTS of a user satisfaction survey suggest that a simple interface to customized content makes it faster and easier for primary care clinicians to find information during the clinic day and to improve care to their patients. The PrimeAnswers portal is a first step in creating a fast search of a customized set of reference objects to match a clinician's patient care questions in the clinic. The next step is developing methods to solve the problem of matching a clinician's question to a specific answer through precise retrieval from reference sources; however, lack of internal structure and Web service standards in most clinical reference sources is an unresolved problem. PMID:15905488

The questions and methods of molecular biology and evolutionary biology are clearly distinct, yet a unified approach can lead to deep insights. Unfortunately, attempts to unify these approaches are fraught with pitfalls. In this informal series of questions and answers, we offer the mechanistically oriented biologist a set of steps to come up with evolutionarily reasonable and meaningful hypotheses. We emphasize the critical power and importance of carefully constructed null hypotheses, and we illustrate our ideas with examples representing a range of topics, from the biology of aging, to protein structure, to speciation, and more. We also stress the importance of mathematics as the lingua franca for biologists of all stripes, and encourage mechanistic biologists to seek out quantitative collaborators to build explicit mathematical models, making their assumptions explicit, and their logic clear and testable. Biologists in all realms of inquiry stand to gain from strong bridges between our disciplines. PMID:27151396

The reliability and validity of professionally written multiple-choice exams have been extensively studied for exams such as the SAT, graduate record examination, and the force concept inventory. Much of the success of these multiple-choice exams is attributed to the careful construction of each question, as well as each response. In this study,…

An increasingly popular method for retrieving information is via the community questionanswering (CQA) systems such as Yahoo! Answers and Baidu Knows. In CQA, question classification plays an important role to find the answers. However, the labeled training examples for statistical question classifier are fairly expensive to obtain, as they require the experienced human efforts. Meanwhile, unlabeled data are readily available. This paper employs the method of domain adaptation via kernel mapping to solve this problem. In detail, the kernel approach is utilized to map the target-domain data and the source-domain data into a common space, where the question classifiers are trained under the closer conditional probabilities. The kernel mapping function is constructed by domain knowledge. Therefore, domain knowledge could be transferred from the labeled examples in the source domain to the unlabeled ones in the targeted domain. The statistical training model can be improved by using a large number of unlabeled data. Meanwhile, the Hadoop Platform is used to construct the mapping mechanism to reduce the time complexity. Map/Reduce enable kernel mapping for domain adaptation in parallel in the Hadoop Platform. Experimental results show that the accuracy of question classification could be improved by the method of kernel mapping. Furthermore, the parallel method in the Hadoop Platform could effective schedule the computing resources to reduce the running time.

Introduction: This study looked at the effect of community peripheral cues (specifically voting score and answerer's reputation) on the user's credibility rating of answers. Method: Students in technology and philosophy were asked to assess the credibility of answers to questions posted on a social question-answering platform. Through the use of a…

Two experiments examine the psychometric effects of providing immediate feedback on the correctness of answers to open-ended questions, and allowing participants to revise their answers following feedback. Participants answering verbal and math questions are able to correct many of their initial incorrect answers, resulting in higher revised…

Questionanswering systems have frequently been explored for educational use. However, their value was somewhat limited due to the quality of the answers returned to the student. Recent questionanswering (QA) research has started to incorporate deep natural language processing (NLP) in order to improve these answers. However, current NLP…

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the attitudes of adolescents toward communicating with their doctor about different aspects of their sexuality. METHODS: The present descriptive survey was conducted with the participation of teenagers from four high schools in Sherbrooke, Quebec. In each school, the students of two grade 8 classes (≤14 years of age) and two grade 10 classes (≥15 years of age) anonymously completed a self-administered questionnaire. Permission from the school board and parental consent for every participant was obtained. RESULTS: A total of 387 adolescents completed the self-administered questionnaire. The response rate for the study was 98%. Only 27% of the respondents remembered being questioned by their doctor about sexuality, and 17% of the respondents had already brought up the topic of sexuality themselves with their doctor. More than one-half (57%) of the adolescents reported they would be moderately comfortable to totally comfortable discussing sexuality with their doctor if they felt the need to. Overall, when asked to evaluate their degree of comfort if questioned on specific questions about their sexuality, 73.8% to 99.5% believed they would be moderately to totally comfortable responding. Nevertheless, there was a statistically significant difference between age groups, with the older age group being more comfortable than the younger age group (P<0.001). There was no difference between the level of comfort among boys and girls answering the same questions. Respondents believed that their treating physician should discuss sexuality with them (73.8%) and, in the majority of cases (78%), that he/she should initiate the conversation. CONCLUSION: Regardless of age or sex, teenagers considered themselves to be at ease discussing sexuality with their doctor and found it an important topic best brought up by their practitioner. PMID:24421673

Undergraduates studied the definitions of 16 psychology terms, expecting either a multiple-choice (n = 132) or short-answer (n = 122) test. All students then received the same multiple-choice test, requiring them to recognize the definitions as well as novel examples of the terms. Compared to students expecting a multiple-choice test, those…

... the question & answer format? 300-2.20 Section 300-2.20 Public Contracts and Property Management Federal Travel Regulation System GENERAL INTRODUCTION 2-HOW TO USE THE FTR Question & Answer Format § 300-2.20 What is the purpose of the question & answer format? The Q&A format is an effective way...

... the question & answer format? 300-2.20 Section 300-2.20 Public Contracts and Property Management Federal Travel Regulation System GENERAL INTRODUCTION 2-HOW TO USE THE FTR Question & Answer Format § 300-2.20 What is the purpose of the question & answer format? The Q&A format is an effective way...

... 26 Internal Revenue 5 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Questions and answers on top-heavy plans. 1.416...-1 Questions and answers on top-heavy plans. The following questions and answers relate to special rules for top-heavy plans under section 416 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as added by...

... 26 Internal Revenue 5 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Questions and answers on top-heavy plans. 1.416...-1 Questions and answers on top-heavy plans. The following questions and answers relate to special rules for top-heavy plans under section 416 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as added by...

... 26 Internal Revenue 5 2012-04-01 2011-04-01 true Questions and answers on top-heavy plans. 1.416-1... Questions and answers on top-heavy plans. The following questions and answers relate to special rules for top-heavy plans under section 416 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as added by section 240 of...

... 26 Internal Revenue 5 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Questions and answers on top-heavy plans. 1.416...-1 Questions and answers on top-heavy plans. The following questions and answers relate to special rules for top-heavy plans under section 416 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as added by...

... Examination Council (FFIEC) in 1996 (61 FR 54647), and were last revised on January 6, 2009 (2009 Questions and Answers) (74 FR 498). The supplementary information published with the 2009 Questions and Answers also proposed for comment one new question and answer (Q&A) and two revised Q&As. 74 FR...

The Office of Energy Research, US DOE is evaluating the concept of obtaining significant amounts of electrical energy from space through the Satellite Power System Project Office (SPS PO) formed for that purpose. The SPS PO prepared and is implementing a Concept Development and Evaluation Program plan. The CDEP runs roughly three years (from July 1977 through July 1980) and consists of four primary elements: (1) Systems Definition, (2) Environmental Assessment, (3) Societal Assessment, and (4) Comparative Assessment. One facet of the Societal Assessment is an investigation of public concerns. To further this investigation, a public outreach experiment was initiated to determine the initial response of three selected interest groups to the SPS, both qualitatively and quantititavely, and to gain some experience for use in future public participation activities. Three groups were contacted and agreed to participate in the experiment. They were: the Citizens Energy Project (CEP), the Forum for the Advancement of Students in Science and Technology (FASST), and the L-5 Society (L-5). They each agreed to condense twenty final SPS reports into approximately four pages each, have them typeset, printed and distributed to 3,000 of their constituents for their review, together with a request that they respond to the parent organization regarding the information presented. All responses were summarized and provided to Planning Research Corporation who then solicited the answers from the SPS PO investigator most directly concerned.The questions and answers are presented and will be distributed by the three groups to the individual respondents. Each of the three groups is also preparing a report to the Project Office detailing their work and results. These, together with other responses and studies will be used to more effectively involve the public in the SPS Participatory Technology Process.

Being multidisciplinary, while admired, is not viewed as a goal of education. Instead, extreme specialization is emphasized. One seeks to attain mastery of a given subject, but at what cost? Even those fields viewed as "interdisciplinary" are often quite narrow in scope, only permitting the most closely related subjects to coalesce. The arts however, are by nature both inter- and multi-disciplinary. They attempt to research, analyze, and reflect upon broader questions, often employing techniques garnered from far-flung fields in order to do so. It is an unfortunate dilemma then that the artist should seem so separate from the scientist, as it seems that both are engaged in a sort of hypothesis testing. Perhaps this division is a remnant of the antiquated left- and right-brained dichotomy, which clearly separated the two groups: Science and Art, Left and Right. In this way, the artist was branded as Science's "other," despite the inherent sameness of their processes. This "otherness" has been carried forward to the present, where artists are often viewed as simply craftspeople -object makers- and the concept of the "artistic problem" is rarely considered. As someone possessing degrees in both Fine Art and Hydrology, the author attempts to explain the connection between the two subjects, and the manner in which they compliment and enlighten each other in her own research. She hypothesizes that in addition to this "otherness," it is the multi-dimensional mode of thinking and dealing with problems that sets the artist apart. But this is a dynamic trait, and as such, it should be considered that by approaching scientific endeavors as artistic problems, the researcher could be permitted a broader framework in which to answer a given scientific question.

Two main open questions in current consciousness research concern (i) the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) and (ii) the relationship between neural activity and first-person, subjective experience. Here, possible answers are sketched for both of these, by means of a model-based analysis of what is required for one to admit having a conscious experience. To this end, a model is proposed that allows reasoning, albeit necessarily in a simplistic manner, about all of the so called "easy problems" of consciousness, from discrimination of stimuli to control of behavior and language. First, it is argued that current neuroscientific knowledge supports the view of perception and action selection as two examples of the same basic phenomenon, such that one can meaningfully refer to neuronal activations involved in perception as covert behavior. Building on existing neuroscientific and psychological models, a narrative behavior model is proposed, outlining how the brain selects covert (and sometimes overt) behaviors to construct a complex, multi-level narrative about what it is like to be the individual in question. It is hypothesized that we tend to admit a conscious experience of X if, at the time of judging consciousness, we find ourselves acceptably capable of performing narrative behavior describing X. It is argued that the proposed account reconciles seemingly conflicting empirical results, previously presented as evidence for competing theories of consciousness, and suggests that well-defined, experiment-independent NCCs are unlikely to exist. Finally, an analysis is made of what the modeled narrative behavior machinery is and is not capable of. It is discussed how an organism endowed with such a machinery could, from its first-person perspective, come to adopt notions such as "subjective experience," and of there being "hard problems," and "explanatory gaps" to be addressed in order to understand consciousness. PMID:26136704

Two main open questions in current consciousness research concern (i) the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) and (ii) the relationship between neural activity and first-person, subjective experience. Here, possible answers are sketched for both of these, by means of a model-based analysis of what is required for one to admit having a conscious experience. To this end, a model is proposed that allows reasoning, albeit necessarily in a simplistic manner, about all of the so called “easy problems” of consciousness, from discrimination of stimuli to control of behavior and language. First, it is argued that current neuroscientific knowledge supports the view of perception and action selection as two examples of the same basic phenomenon, such that one can meaningfully refer to neuronal activations involved in perception as covert behavior. Building on existing neuroscientific and psychological models, a narrative behavior model is proposed, outlining how the brain selects covert (and sometimes overt) behaviors to construct a complex, multi-level narrative about what it is like to be the individual in question. It is hypothesized that we tend to admit a conscious experience of X if, at the time of judging consciousness, we find ourselves acceptably capable of performing narrative behavior describing X. It is argued that the proposed account reconciles seemingly conflicting empirical results, previously presented as evidence for competing theories of consciousness, and suggests that well-defined, experiment-independent NCCs are unlikely to exist. Finally, an analysis is made of what the modeled narrative behavior machinery is and is not capable of. It is discussed how an organism endowed with such a machinery could, from its first-person perspective, come to adopt notions such as “subjective experience,” and of there being “hard problems,” and “explanatory gaps” to be addressed in order to understand consciousness. PMID:26136704

Dental care of pregnant patients is a demanding task. On one hand, clinicians are facing patients with an altered physiology that may cause a greater need for treatment. On the other hand, pregnancy in itself as well as the unborn child involves potential contraindications to dental interventions. It is therefore essential that dentists be knowledgeable of the ramifications pregnancy has on medical findings and therapy. Also, clinicians must be able to conduct their treatment based on well-grounded data to avoid any harm to the pregnant woman and her unborn child. This article focuses on facts specifically relevant to clinicians. Based on most current scientific data, we aim to answer the following ten questions: 1. What are the physiological changes during pregnancy? 2. What is the adequate lying position for a pregnant patient? 3. Is there a pregnancy-related gingivitis? 4. What is the association between periodontitis, pregnancy and preterm birth? 5. Are there oral manifestations of pregnancy-related therapies? 6. Are caries and erosions inevitable during pregnancy? 7. Should the intake of fluoride be advocated? 8. Is it permissible to x-ray pregnant patients? 9. Is orthodontics contraindicated during pregnancy and 10. Which medication should be administered with caution? PMID:23023311

The author is concerned about the methodology and instrumentation used to assess both graphing abilities and the impact of microcomputer-based laboratories (MBL) on students' graphing abilities for four reasons: (1) the ability to construct and interpret graphs is critical for developing key ideas in science; (2) science educators need to have valid information for making teaching decisions; (3) educators and researchers are heralding the arrival of MBL as a tool for developing graphing abilities; and (4) some of the research which supports using MBL appears to have significant validity problems. In this article, the author will describe the research which challenges the validity of using multiple-choice instruments to assess graphing abilities. The evidence from this research will identify numerous disparities between the results of multiple-choice and free-response instruments. In the first study, 72 subjects in the seventh, ninth, and eleventh grades were administered individual clinical interviews to assess their ability to construct and interpret graphs. A wide variety of graphs and situations were assessed. In three instances during the interview, students drew a graph that would best represent a situation and then explained their drawings. The results of these clinical graphing interviews were very different from similar questions assessed through multiple-choice formats in other research studies. In addition, insights into students' thinking about graphing reveal that some multiple-choice graphing questions from prior research studies and standardized tests do not discriminate between right answers/right reasons, right answers/wrong reasons, and answers scored wrong but correct for valid reasons. These results indicate that in some instances multiple-choicequestions are not a valid measure of graphing abilities. In a second study, the researcher continued to pursue the questions raised about the validity of multiple-choice tests to assess graphing

Question and Answering (Q/A) systems aggregate the collected intelligence of all users to provide satisfying answers for questions. A well-developed Q/A system should provide high question response rate, low response delay and good answer quality. Previous works use reputation systems to achieve the goals. However, these reputation systems evaluate a user with an overall rating for all questions the user has answered regardless of the question categories, thus the reputation score cannot accurately reflect the user's ability to answer a question in a specific category. In this paper, we propose TtustQ, a category reputation based Q/A System. TtustQ evaluates users' willingness and capability to answerquestions in different categories. Considering a user has different willingness to answerquestions from different users, TtustQ lets each node evaluate the reputation of other nodes answering its own questions. User a calculates user b's final reputation by considering both user a's direct rating and the indirect ratings on user b from other nodes. The reputation values facilitate forwarding a question to potential answerers, which improves the question response rate, response delay and answer quality. Our trace-driven simulation on PeerSim demonstrates the effectiveness of TtustQ in providing good user experience in terms of response rate and latency, and the answer quality.

Based on a continuing education session on childhood and adolescent diabetes, the strategy of electronic vote system is presented and illustrated using multiplechoicequestions given in the previous article. PMID:11205191

Objective To investigate whether strength of social feedback, i.e. other people who concur (or do not concur) with one’s own answer to a question, influences the way one answers health questions. Methods Online prospective study. Two hundred and twenty-seven undergraduate students were recruited to use an online search engine to answer six health questions. Subjects recorded their pre- and post-search answers to each question and their level of confidence in these answers. After answering each question post-search, subjects were presented with a summary of post-search answers provided by previous subjects and were asked to answer the question again. Results There was a statistically significant relationship between the absolute number of others with a different answer (the crowd’s opinion volume) and the likelihood of an individual changing an answer (P<0.001). For most questions, no subjects changed their answer until the first 10–35 subjects completed the study. Subjects’ likelihood of changing answer increased as the percentage of others with a different answer (the crowd’s opinion density) increased (P=0.047). Overall, 98.3% of subjects did not change their answer when it concurred with the majority (i.e. >50%) of subjects, and that 25.7% of subjects changed their answer to the majority response when it did not concur with the majority. When subjects had a post-search answer that did not concur with the majority, they were 24% more likely to change answer than those with answers that concurred (P<0.001). Conclusion This study provides empirical evidence that crowd influence, in the form of online social feedback, affects the way consumers answer health questions. PMID:23616869

The term desirable difficulties (Bjork, 1994) refers to conditions of learning that, though often appearing to cause difficulties for the learner and to slow down the process of acquisition, actually improve long-term retention and transfer. One known desirable difficulty is testing (as compared with restudy), although typically it is tests that clearly involve retrieval--such as free and cued recall tests--that are thought to induce these learning benefits and not multiple-choice tests. Nonetheless, multiple-choice testing is ubiquitous in educational settings and many other high-stakes situations. In this article, we discuss research, in both the laboratory and the classroom, exploring whether multiple-choice testing can also be fashioned to promote the type of retrieval processes known to improve learning, and we speculate about the necessary properties that multiple-choicequestions must possess, as well as the metacognitive strategy students need to use in answering such questions, to achieve this goal. PMID:26255442

Closed domain questionanswering (QA) systems achieve precision and recall at the cost of complex language processing techniques to parse the answer corpus. We propose a "query-based" model for indexing answers in a closed domain factoid QA system. Further, we use a phrase term inference method for improving the ranking order of related questions.…

Concerns regarding human milk in our society are diverse, ranging from the presence of environmental chemicals to the health of breastfed infants and the economic value of breastfeeding to society. The panel convened for the Technical Workshop on Human Milk Surveillance and Biomonitoring for Environmental Chemicals in the United States, held at the Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania State College of Medicine, on 24--26 September 2004, considered how human milk research may contribute to environmental health initiatives to benefit society. The panel concluded that infant, maternal, and community health can benefit from studies using human milk biomonitoring. Unlike other biological specimens, human milk provides information regarding exposure of the mother and breastfed infant to environmental chemicals. Some of the health topics relevant to this field of research include disorders of growth and development in infants, cancer origins in women, and characterization of the trend of exposure to environmental chemicals in the community. The research focus will determine the design of the study and the need for the collection of alternative biological specimens and the long-term storage of these specimens. In order to strengthen the ability to interpret study results, it is important to identify reference ranges for the chemicals measured and to control for populations with high environmental chemical exposure, because the amount of data on environmental chemical levels in human milk that is available for comparison is extremely limited. In addition, it will be necessary to validate models used to assess infant exposure from breastfeeding because of the variable nature of current models. Information on differences between individual and population risk estimates for toxicity needs to be effectively communicated to the participant. Human milk research designed to answerquestions regarding health will require additional resources to meet these objectives. PMID:16176918

With recent advancements in Semantic Web technologies, a new trend in MCQ item generation has emerged through the use of ontologies. Ontologies are knowledge representation structures that formally describe entities in a domain and their relationships, thus enabling automated inference and reasoning. Ontology-based MCQ item generation is still in its infancy, but substantial research efforts are being made in the field. However, the applicability of these models for use in an educational setting has not been thoroughly evaluated. In this paper, we present an experimental evaluation of an ontology-based MCQ item generation system known as OntoQue. The evaluation was conducted using two different domain ontologies. The findings of this study show that ontology-based MCQ generation systems produce satisfactory MCQ items to a certain extent. However, the evaluation also revealed a number of shortcomings with current ontology-based MCQ item generation systems with regard to the educational significance of an automatically constructed MCQ item, the knowledge level it addresses, and its language structure. Furthermore, for the task to be successful in producing high-quality MCQ items for learning assessments, this study suggests a novel, holistic view that incorporates learning content, learning objectives, lexical knowledge, and scenarios into a single cohesive framework. PMID:24982937

With recent advancements in Semantic Web technologies, a new trend in MCQ item generation has emerged through the use of ontologies. Ontologies are knowledge representation structures that formally describe entities in a domain and their relationships, thus enabling automated inference and reasoning. Ontology-based MCQ item generation is still in its infancy, but substantial research efforts are being made in the field. However, the applicability of these models for use in an educational setting has not been thoroughly evaluated. In this paper, we present an experimental evaluation of an ontology-based MCQ item generation system known as OntoQue. The evaluation was conducted using two different domain ontologies. The findings of this study show that ontology-based MCQ generation systems produce satisfactory MCQ items to a certain extent. However, the evaluation also revealed a number of shortcomings with current ontology-based MCQ item generation systems with regard to the educational significance of an automatically constructed MCQ item, the knowledge level it addresses, and its language structure. Furthermore, for the task to be successful in producing high-quality MCQ items for learning assessments, this study suggests a novel, holistic view that incorporates learning content, learning objectives, lexical knowledge, and scenarios into a single cohesive framework. PMID:24982937

This resource booklet, in both English and Spanish, was developed to answer commonly asked questions about bilingual education. The booklet is intended to clarify the benefits to be derived from quality bilingual education. Questions and answers are divided under the following headers: (1) program questions (e.g., what is bilingual education and…

In previous papers, we asserted that software system safety is primarily concerned with epistemic questions, that is, questions concerning knowledge and the degree of confidence that can be placed in that knowledge. We also enumerated a set of 21 foundational epistemic questions, discussed some of the difficulties that exist in answering these questions adequately today, and speculated briefly on possible research that may provide improved confidence in the sufficiency of answers in the future. This paper focuses on three of the foundational questions. For each of these questions, current answers are discussed and potential research is proposed to help increase the justifiable level of confidence.

How do assessments for learning differ from assessments of learning? What is the purpose of grading? After nearly two decades of immersion in standards-based curriculua and instruction, our nation's educators are often still confounded by the (admittedly complex) landscape of standards, assessment, and reporting. In "Answers to Essential…

We propose a method to extract a lot of correspondences between questions and answers from a Web message board automatically. We use Web message boards as information sources because Web messasge boards have a lot of articles posted by general users. We extract correspondences between questions and answers that can be used in questionanswering systems to support natural language sentence input. At first, our proposed method classifies messages of a Web message board into either questions or others. Next, our method extracts a set of root-node pairs from the thread tree of a Web message board, where we define the thread tree when the root is an article classified as a question, and nodes are articles classified as answer candidates. Our method finds correspondences between questions and answers using two clues, (1)similarity between their articles, (2)link count between their articles. We experimented the proposed method, discussed results, and analyzed errors.

Survey designers have long assumed that respondents who disagree with a negative question ("This policy is bad.": "Yes" or "No"; 2-point scale) will agree with an equivalent positive question ("This policy is good.": "Yes" or "No"; 2-point scale). However, experimental evidence has proven otherwise: Respondents are more likely to disagree with…

Describes a study that investigated the use of natural language questions on Web search engines. Highlights include query languages; differences in search engine syntax; and results of logistic regression and analysis of variance that showed aspects of questions that predicted significantly different performances, including the number of words,…

The quality of mother-child linguistic interaction was studied in 40 6-year-old English children and their mothers. Both the middle and working classes were represented in the sample. Tasks were administered in which children were to ask questions of their mothers. Questions were analyzed in terms of open versus closed. The majority of the…

The purpose of this article is to explore location-based questions as a weakness of virtual reference consortia and discuss how to mitigate related issues. Content analysis of how both local and non-local academic librarians responded to location-based questions provides insight into considerations academic libraries must make when participating…

This study investigates brain responses to violations of information structure in wh-question-answer pairs, with particular emphasis on violations of focus assignment in it-clefts (It was the queen that silenced the banker). Two types of ERP responses in answers to wh-questions were found. First, all words in the focus-marking (cleft) position…

...The OCC, Board, and FDIC (collectively, the Agencies) are adopting as final the Interagency Questions and Answers Regarding Community Reinvestment that were proposed on March 18, 2013, to address several community development issues. In response to comments received, the Agencies made minor clarifications to some of the new and revised questions and answers that were...

This report develops an analytical framework based on systems analysis for evaluating electronic question/answer or AskA services operated by a wide range of types of organizations, including libraries. Version 1.0 of this framework was applied in June 1999 to a selective sample of 11 electronic question/answer services, which cover a range of…

The Sloan Work and Family Research Network has prepared Fact Sheets that provide statistical answers to some important questions about work-family and work-life issues. This Fact Sheet includes statistics about Child Care, and answers the following questions about child care: (1) How many children are in child care?; (2) How many hours per week do…

The Sloan Work and Family Research Network has prepared Fact Sheets that provide statistical answers to some important questions about work-family and work-life issues. This Fact Sheet includes statistics about Afterschool Care, and answers the following questions about afterschool programs: (1) How does afterschool care help children?; (2) How…

...The OCC, Board, and FDIC (collectively, the Agencies) are proposing to clarify their Interagency Questions and Answers Regarding Community Reinvestment to address several community development issues. The Agencies propose to revise five questions and answers, which address (i) community development activities outside institutions' assessment areas, both in the broader statewide or regional......

Many workers have questions about occupational safety and health (OSH). Answers to these questions empower them to further improve their knowledge about OSH, make good decisions about OSH matters and improve OSH practice when necessary. Nevertheless, many workers fail to find the answers to their questions. This paper explores the challenges workers may face when seeking answers to their OSH questions. Findings suggest that many workers may lack the skills, experience or motivation to formulate an answerablequestion, seek and find information, appraise information, compose correct answers and apply information in OSH practice. Simultaneously, OSH knowledge infrastructures often insufficiently support workers in answering their OSH questions. This paper discusses several potentially attractive strategies for developing and improving OSH knowledge infrastructures: 1) providing courses that teach workers to ask answerablequestions and to train them to find, appraise and apply information, 2) developing information and communication technology tools or facilities that support workers as they complete one or more stages in the process from question to answer and 3) tailoring information and implementation strategies to the workers' needs and context to ensure that the information can be applied to OSH practice more easily. PMID:22453212

Scores based on the number of correct answers were compared with scores based on dangerous responses to items in the same multiplechoice test developed by American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery. Results showed construct validity for both sets of scores. However, both scores were redundant when evaluated by correlation coefficient. (Author/JAZ)

The number right (NR) method, in which students pick one option as the answer, is the conventional method for scoring multiple-choice tests that is heavily criticized for encouraging students to guess and failing to credit partial knowledge. In addition, computer technology is increasingly used in classroom assessment. This paper investigates the…

... Photo courtesy of NIDA The questions poured in… High School Student: Can doing drugs at a young age screw ... see http://www.drugabuse.gov/scienceofaddiction/addiction.html . High School Student: How long do you think the average person ...

Forty children aged 3-6 years responded to items representing nine wh-question forms. Questions referred to three types of referential sources (conditions) based on immediacy and visual availability. The hierarchies of wh-question forms based on degree of difficulty were similar to those described in previous investigations. However, a significant interaction between referential conditions and wh-form was found to influence the relative complexity of the stimulus questions. The children were significantly less successful in giving appropriate and accurate responses when the question referred to objects, persons, or events not represented in the immediate setting. Recognition and delivery of the general category or kind of information required by a wh-form (functional appropriateness) appeared to predate substantially the ability to respond with fact, accuracy, logic, and credibility (functional accuracy). The results suggest consideration and control of referential source as well as appropriateness/accuracy response criteria in the evaluation and treatment of language-disordered children. PMID:6738041

This article attempts to address theoretical questions regarding the transition towards an entrepreneurial university and the changes associated with this process, namely the increased commodification, the competitive quest for private funding and the introduction of business management practices. The important theoretical advances made in the…

A survey of nonprofit literature on board governance, volunteer management, and performance measurement shows that study of the nonprofit sector can help inform public management's "big questions": breaking the micromanagement cycle, motivating employees, and measuring performance. Nonprofit studies could enrich public administration curricula.…

A large-scale study of complex "wh"-questions with 1,000 subjects aged 4-9 years is reported. The subjects' dialects were Mainstream American English or African American English, and approximately one-third were language impaired. The study examined when children permit long distance "wh"-movement, and when they respect a variety of syntactic…

Cheating in examinations is acknowledged by an increasing number of organizations to be widespread. We examine two different approaches to assess their effectiveness at detecting anomalous results, suggestive of collusion, using data taken from a number of multiple-choice examinations organized by the UK Radio Communication Foundation. Analysis of student pair overlaps of correct answers is shown to give results consistent with more orthodox statistical correlations for which confidence limits as opposed to the less familiar "Bonferroni method" can be used. A simulation approach is also developed which confirms the interpretation of the empirical approach. Then the variables Xi =(1 -Ui) Yi +Ui Z are a system of symmetric dependent binary variables (0 , 1 ; p) whose correlation matrix is ρij = r. The proof is easy and given in the paper. Let us add two remarks. • We used the expression "symmetric variables" to reflect the fact that all Xi play the same role. The expression "exchangeable variables" is often used with the same meaning. • The correlation matrix has only positive elements. This is of course imposed by the symmetry condition. ρ12 < 0 and ρ23 < 0 would imply ρ13 > 0, thus violating the symmetry requirement. In the following subsections we will be concerned with the question of uniqueness of the set of Xi generated above. Needless to say, it is useful to know whether the proposition gives the answer or only one among many. More precisely, the problem can be stated as follows.

A medical group must address practical and legal issues when it discovers improper payments, billing mistakes or alleged misconduct. Its response has a significant impact on how the charges are resolved. A group and its providers can come under fraud and abuse investigations, whistle-blower allegations and Medicare payment reviews. Many questions arise in response to billing errors or allegations of misconduct. PMID:14571591

Below are the answers to questions that appeared last month (vol. 93, no. 9, September 2001) in the CME article Modern Pharmacotherapies for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Participants could earn two Category 1 CME credits if they correctly answered a minimum of 70% of the questions that appeared after the manuscript, provided their answers were postmarked by September 25, 2001. Please see instructions at the end of the answers below for information on earning CME credits through the Journal of the National Medical Association.

A rising need for workers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields has fueled interest in improving teaching within STEM disciplines. Numerous studies have demonstrated the benefits of active learning approaches on student learning outcomes. However, many of these studies have been conducted in experimental, rather than real-life class, settings. In addition, most of these studies have focused on in-class active learning exercises. This study tested the effects of answeringquestions outside of class on exam performance for General Biology students at the University of Minnesota. An online database of 1,020 multiple-choicequestions covering material from the first half of the course was generated. Students in seven course sections (with an average of ∼265 students per section) were given unlimited access to the online study questions. These students made extensive use of the online questions, with students answering an average of 1,323 questions covering material from the half of the semester for which the questions were available. After students answered a set of questions, they were shown the correct answers for those questions. More specific feedback describing how to arrive at the correct answer was provided for the 73% of the questions for which the correct answers were not deemed to be self-explanatory. The extent to which access to the online study questions improved student learning outcomes was assessed by comparing the performance on exam questions of students in the seven course sections with access to the online study questions with the performance of students in course sections without access to the online study questions. Student performance was analyzed for a total of 89 different exams questions that were not included in the study questions, but that covered the same material covered by the study questions. Each of these 89 questions was used on one to five exams given to students in course sections that had access to the

Background About 6 million people search for health information on the Internet each day in the United States. Both patients and caregivers search for information about prescribed courses of treatments, unanswered questions after a visit to their providers, or diet and exercise regimens. Past literature has indicated potential challenges around quality in health information available on the Internet. However, diverse information exists on the Internet—ranging from government-initiated webpages to personal blog pages. Yet we do not fully understand the strengths and weaknesses of different types of information available on the Internet. Objective The objective of this research was to investigate the strengths and challenges of various types of health information available online and to suggest what information sources best fit various question types. Methods We collected questions posted to and the responses they received from an online diabetes community and classified them according to Rothwell’s classification of question types (fact, policy, or value questions). We selected 60 questions (20 each of fact, policy, and value) and the replies the questions received from the community. We then searched for responses to the same questions using a search engine and recorded the Results Community responses answered more questions than did search results overall. Search results were most effective in answering value questions and least effective in answering policy questions. Community responses answeredquestions across question types at an equivalent rate, but most answered policy questions and the least answered fact questions. Value questions were most answered by community responses, but some of these answers provided by the community were incorrect. Fact question search results were the most clinically valid. Conclusions The Internet is a prevalent source of health information for people. The information quality people encounter online can have a large impact

Cataclysmic variables (CVs) are interacting binaries consisting of a white dwarf primary, and a non-degenerate secondary star. There are numerous subclasses of CVs (any of which could become a Classical Nova), but broadly, these classifications are believed to arise from either differing values of the mass accretion rate, or whether the white dwarf primary is magnetic. There continue to be numerous questions about the origin, and evolution of these systems. We will review some of the outstanding issues, and address how advances in interferometry might be used to resolve them.

The present purpose was to examine racial differences in response rate and serious behavioral suicide risk based on the national Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey (YRBS). Data from 15,245 adolescents (YRBS, 2011) were included. Survey items pertaining to making suicidal plans and attempting suicide were included. Significant differences in responding and content emerged, especially with regard to suicide attempts. Racial minority adolescents are at elevated risk for serious suicidal behaviors and are more likely to omit items pertaining to suicide attempts. African American adolescents rarely reported having attempted suicide, but they also frequently failed to respond to that question. PMID:26083790

Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) has emerged as a regulator of development, plasticity and, recently, addiction. Decreased neurotrophic activity may be involved in ethanol-induced neurodegeneration in the adult brain and in the etiology of alcohol-related neurodevelopmental disorders. This can occur through decreased expression of BDNF or through inability of the receptor to transduce signals in the presence of ethanol. In contrast, recent studies implicate region-specific up-regulation of BDNF and associated signaling pathways in anxiety, addiction and homeostasis after ethanol exposure. Anxiety and depression are precipitating factors for substance abuse and these disorders also involve region-specific changes in BDNF in both pathogenesis and response to pharmacotherapy. Polymorphisms in the genes coding for BDNF and its receptor TrkB are linked to affective, substance abuse and appetitive disorders and therefore may play a role in the development of alcoholism. This review summarizes historical and pre-clinical data on BDNF and TrkB as it relates to ethanol toxicity and addiction. Many unresolved questions about region-specific changes in BDNF expression and the precise role of BDNF in neuropsychiatric disorders and addiction remain to be elucidated. Resolution of these questions will require significant integration of the literature on addiction and comorbid psychiatric disorders that contribute to the development of alcoholism. PMID:18394710

The debate regarding the morality of heterologous embryo transfer (HET) as a solution for the fate of cryopreserved embryos remains active. This paper endeavors to show that the magisterial instructions on bioethical issues can only lead to the conclusion that HET is always morally illicit. I begin by showing that the text of Dignitas personae recognizes HET as a procedure accomplishing a procreative function, and I indicate that it is through gestation that this procreative function occurs. I further show that the previous Instruction, Donum vitae, implicitly points to an ontological or spiritual consideration at play during gestation. This consideration is likely related to the procreative function identified in Dignitas personae. Finally, I place these two textual arguments in the context of the debate concerning HET and conclude that metaphysical questions must be clarified in order for the immorality of HET to be understood from a suitable anthropological perspective and gain more widespread acceptance. PMID:24899737

... 36 Parks, Forests, and Public Property 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false How are these Questions and... these Questions and Answers formatted? As if you, the reader, were asking us, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, these questions....

This study examined the effect of (a) high- and low-level questions and (b) reading the text before the questions asked on performance, delayed text recall, and deep text comprehension, as well as on specific text-inspection patterns. Participants were 37 undergraduate students who answered either high- or low-level questions using the software…

Research on student questions in L2 classrooms has shown conflicting results. Some studies report that foreign language teachers use direct answers and others express concern about ESL teachers' overuse of ineffective display counter-questions. Here, student questions and their resolutions were analyzed in more than thirty hours of first through…

Interactive multimedia learning environments incorporate interactive features, such as questioning, through which questions are posed to students and feedback is delivered on their answers. An experiment was conducted comparing two forms of questioning. The participants learned about geology with a multimedia environment that included questioning…

This book aims to provide practical, research-informed answers to the questions most frequently asked by teachers of second language learners. Every question targets one of the key instructional issues teachers must address to ensure success for their second language students. Included among the questions are: How do I assess a student's English?…

Social Q&A allows people to ask and answerquestions for each other and to solve problems in everyday life collaboratively. The purpose of the current study is to understand the motivations and strategies of answerers in social Q&A. Thus, three research questions were investigated: (1) Why do answerers participate and contribute in social Q&A? (2)…

Introduction: The popularity of social question and answer sites has made it an important and convenient source for obtaining knowledge. This study quantifies how three different system characteristics (interface design, interaction and answer quality) affect users' perceptions (perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and perceived enjoyment),…

Brigadier General Richard F. Abel, right, director of public affairs for the Air Force, and Colonel Nathan J. Lindsay of the USAF's space division, answerquestions concerning STS-4 during a press conference at JSC on May 20, 1982.

The purpose of this question and answer report is to provide a clear, easy-to-understand explanation of revised radiation dose estimates which workers are likely to receive over the course of the cleanup at Three Mile Island, Unit 2, and of the possible health consequences to workers of these new estimates. We will focus primarily on occupational dose, although pertinent questions about public health and safety will also be answered.

This book answers more than 70 key questions that business managers and trainers ask about using e-learning in their company as a business tool. Chapters 1 and 3-11 are comprised of questions and answers related to these topics: what e-learning is all about; what e-learning costs; applying e-learning to the business; what today's e-learning…

This question-and-answer report provides answers in nontechnical language to frequently asked questions about the status of cleanup activities at Three Mile Island, Unit 2. The answers update information first prepared in 1981, shortly after the cleanup got under way. Since then, a variety of important developments in the cleanup has occurred. The information in the report should be read in conjunction with NUREG 1060, a discussion of increased occupational exposure estimates for the cleanup. The questions and answers in this report cover purpose and community involvement, decontamination of water and reactor, fuel removal, radwaste transport, environmental impact, social and economic effects, worker exposures and safety, radiation monitoring, potential for accidents, and schedule and funding.

The Internet is having a profound impact on physicians' medical decision making. One recent survey of 277 physicians showed that 72% of physicians regularly used the Internet to research medical information and 51% admitted that information from web sites influenced their clinical decisions. This paper describes the first cognitive evaluation of four state-of-the-art Internet search engines: Google (i.e., Google and Scholar.Google), MedQA, Onelook, and PubMed for answering definitional questions (i.e., questions with the format of "What is X?") posed by physicians. Onelook is a portal for online definitions, and MedQA is a questionanswering system that automatically generates short texts to answer specific biomedical questions. Our evaluation criteria include quality of answer, ease of use, time spent, and number of actions taken. Our results show that MedQA outperforms Onelook and PubMed in most of the criteria, and that MedQA surpasses Google in time spent and number of actions, two important efficiency criteria. Our results show that Google is the best system for quality of answer and ease of use. We conclude that Google is an effective search engine for medical definitions, and that MedQA exceeds the other search engines in that it provides users direct answers to their questions; while the users of the other search engines have to visit several sites before finding all of the pertinent information. PMID:17990503

The DIATEST responder system is a control system for fully programed running of diagnostic tests of multiple-choice type. The system makes use of the control unit earlier developed at the Institute of Technology for programed four-screen slide projection and the electronic response analyser (ESAU). Presentation of a question is done audiovisually,…

This research inquires into the effectiveness of the two predominant forms of questions--multiple-choicequestions and short-answerquestions--used in the State University Entrance Examination for Chemistry including the relationship between performance and gender. It examines not only the style of question but also the content type examined…

This article addresses practice issues related to school health records and school nursing documentation. Because the issues have been posed by practicing school nurses, the article is in Question and Answer (Q&A) format. Specifically, the questions addressed concern the following: ownership and storage location of student health records when the…

The transition from paper-based to computer-based assessment raises a number of important issues about how mode might affect children's performance and questionanswering strategies. In this project 104 eleven-year-olds were given two sets of matched mathematics questions, one set on-line and the other on paper. Facility values were analyzed to…

Intended for both parents and educators, the booklet offers answers to the questions parents ask about their gifted children. The 64 questions are divided into 6 major categories--definitions of giftedness, ways to help parents identify gifted children, schooling for the gifted child, understanding gifted children, help for the gifted child, and…

The purpose of the study was to explore students' selection of information strategies in a task-oriented reading situation. 72 secondary school students read two texts and answered six questions per text, three of which were manipulated to induce a misleading matching between the wording of the question and distracting pieces of information in the…

This document provides answers to questions frequently asked by parents and practitioners about the mandates and requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997 (IDEA). The 29 questions are organized into six sections: (1) background information on the IDEA (history of IDEA, and obtaining copies of IDEA and…

The authors contend that teacher education (like K-12) is under attack by those seeking to exploit the public good and privatize education. Teacher educators find themselves on the defensive, compelled to answerquestions about efficacy and accountability that do not reflect their understandings of their work, questions that do not address the…

... expressed in the question and answer format? 300-2.21 Section 300-2.21 Public Contracts and Property Management Federal Travel Regulation System GENERAL INTRODUCTION 2-HOW TO USE THE FTR Question & Answer Format § 300-2.21 How is the rule expressed in the question and answer format? The rule is expressed...

... expressed in the question and answer format? 300-2.21 Section 300-2.21 Public Contracts and Property Management Federal Travel Regulation System GENERAL INTRODUCTION 2-HOW TO USE THE FTR Question & Answer Format § 300-2.21 How is the rule expressed in the question and answer format? The rule is expressed...

This article presents analysis of question-answer sequences during problem inquiry between a teacher and two children in an early childhood crèche in New Zealand. Conversation analysis is used to reveal which questions the teacher asks, how children answer the questions, and the teacher's responses to the child's answers. Although…

Suppose that in a multiplechoice examination the leading significant digit of the correct options follows Benford's Law, while the leading digit of the distractors is uniform. Consider a strategy for guessing at answers that selects the option with the lowest leading digit with ties broken at random. We provide an expression for both the probability that this strategy selects the correct option and also the generalization to the probability of selecting the option with the lowest r significant digit string.

In order to meet the demand to acquire necessary information efficiently from large electronic text, the Question and Answering (QA) technology to show a clear reply automatically to a question asked in the user's natural language has widely attracted attention in recent years. Although the research of QA system in China is later than that in western countries and Japan, it has attracted more and more attention recently. In this paper, we propose a Question-Answering construction, which synthesizes the answer retrieval to the questions asked most frequently based on common knowledge, and the document retrieval concerning sightseeing information. In order to improve reply accuracy, one must consider the synthetic model based on statistic VSM and the shallow semantic analysis, and the domain is limited to sightseeing information. A Chinese QA system about sightseeing based on the proposed method has been built. The result is obtained by evaluation experiments, where high accuracy can be achieved when the results of retrieval were regarded as correct, if the correct answer appeared among those of the top three resemblance degree. The experiments proved the efficiency of our method and it is feasible to develop Question-Answering technology based on this method.

Clinical nutrition specialists (CNSs) are often confronted with technological, ethical, and legal questions, that is, what can be done technologically, what should be done ethically, and what must be done legally, which conflict at times. The conflict represents a "troubling trichotomy" as discussed in the lead article of this issue of Nutrition in Clinical Practice (NCP). During Clinical Nutrition Week in 2006, a symposium covering these 3 topics was presented, and later that year, an article covering the same topic was published in NCP In this article, we revisit several legal questions/issues that were raised 10 years ago and discuss current answers and approaches. Some of the answers remain unchanged. Other answers have been modified by additional legislation, court decisions, or regulations. In addition, new questions/issues have arisen. Some of the most common questions regarding nutrition support involve the following: liability, informed consent, medical decisional incapacity vs legal competence, advance directive specificity, surrogate decision making, physician orders for life-sustaining treatment and electronic medical orders for life-sustaining treatment, legal definition of death, patient vs family decision making, the noncompliant patient, and elder abuse obligations. In the current healthcare environment, these questions and issues are best addressed via a transdisciplinary team that focuses on function rather than form. The CNS can play a pivotal role in dealing with these challenges by applying the acronym ACT: being Accountable and Communicating with all stakeholders while actively participating as an integral part of the transdisciplinary Team. PMID:27113077

Objectives: This study sought to assess the ability of medical and nurse practitioner students to use medline to obtain evidence for answering clinical questions and to identify factors associated with the successful answering of questions. Methods: A convenience sample of medical and nurse practitioner students was recruited. After completing instruments measuring demographic variables, computer and searching attitudes and experience, and cognitive traits, the subjects were given a brief orientation to medline searching and the techniques of evidence-based medicine. The subjects were then given 5 questions (from a pool of 20) to answer in two sessions using the Ovid medline system and the Oregon Health & Science University library collection. Each question was answered using three possible responses that reflected the quality of the evidence. All actions capable of being logged by the Ovid system were captured. Statistical analysis was performed using a model based on generalized estimating equations. The relevance-based measures of recall and precision were measured by defining end queries and having relevance judgments made by physicians who were not associated with the study. Results: Forty-five medical and 21 nurse practitioner students provided usable answers to 324 questions. The rate of correctness increased from 32.3 to 51.6 percent for medical students and from 31.7 to 34.7 percent for nurse practitioner students. Ability to answerquestions correctly was most strongly associated with correctness of the answer before searching, user experience with medline features, the evidence-based medicine question type, and the spatial visualization score. The spatial visualization score showed multi-collinearity with student type (medical vs. nurse practitioner). Medical and nurse practitioner students obtained comparable recall and precision, neither of which was associated with correctness of the answer. Conclusions: Medical and nurse practitioner students in this

The information centre of the Emma Children's Hospital AMC (EKZ AMC) is a specialised information centre where paediatric patients and persons involved with the patient can ask questions about all aspects of disease and its social implications. The aim of the study was to evaluate the question-answer service of this information centre in order to determine the role of a specialised information centre in an academic children's hospital, identify the appropriate resources for the service and potential positive effects. For this purpose, a case management system was developed in MS ACCESS. The characteristics of the requester and the question, the time it took to answerquestions, the information sources used and the extent to which we were able to answer the questions were registered. The costs of the service were determined. We analysed all questions that were asked in the year 2007. Fourteen hundred thirty-four questions were asked. Most questions were asked by parents (23.3%), healthcare workers (other than nurses; 16.5%) and nurses (15.3%). The scope of the most frequently asked questions include disease (20.2%) and treatment (13.0%). Information on paper was the main information source used. Most questions could be solved within 15 min. Twelve percent to 28% of total working hours are used for the question-answer service. Total costs including staff salary are rather large. In conclusions, taking over the task of providing additional medical information and by providing readily available, good quality information that healthcare professionals can use to inform their patients will lead to less time investment of these more expensive staff members. A specialised information service can anticipate on the information need of parents and persons involved with the paediatric patient. It improves information by providing with relatively simple resources that has the potential to improve patient and parent satisfaction, coping and medical results. A specialised

Science education researchers agree on one thing: the empirical finding that students often answerquestions about simple physical phenomena in ways that are not only specific and contrary to the scientific view, but also remarkably similar to answers of other students. What causes these answering patterns? Most efforts focus on students' explicit reasoning, yet it still remains an open question to what extent implicit, automatic learning processes play a role. We provide evidence that such automatic cognitive mechanisms likely play an important role in student responses to science questions. For example, we find that students often choose to base their answer on the dimensions of a problem that are processed the fastest (even if the dimension is incorrect), and forcing a few-second delay can improve their performance. This suggests that respondents are capable of answering correctly, but instead they tend to answer quickly. We also provide evidence suggesting that repetitive training can shift attention to more relevant dimensions in a problem and increase performance, possibly because processing time is decreased.

Examinations are used to evaluate individual student learning. Therefore, fair and consistent administration practices are essential. One issue associated with testing administration practices includes whether or not students should be allowed to ask questions during exams and how faculty should respond. Findings from this descriptive study indicate that faculty believe answeringquestions disrupts the testing environment, inhibits effective monitoring of the testing environment, and could provide unfair hints to students who ask questions. Yet, faculty permit students to ask questions to clarify unclear wording, to provide definitions, and to appear receptive to student needs. Recommendations for nursing education and research are provided. PMID:27405200

This paper analyzes the results of a pilot study at Glendale Community College (Arizona) to assess the effectiveness of a comprehensive multiplechoice final exam in the macroeconomic principles course. The "pilot project" involved the administration of a 50-questionmultiplechoice exam to 71 students in three macroeconomics sections. The…

Participation in rigorous high school courses such as Advanced Placement (AP[R]) Physics increases the likelihood of college success, especially for students who are traditionally underserved. Tackling difficult multiple-choice exams should be part of any AP program because well-constructed multiple-choicequestions, such as those on AP exams and…

Background Social media is used increasingly by the general public to access health information. However, a lack of models for health information distribution limits the presence of publicly funded services on social media sites. Objective The goal of the study was to present a model for delivering child health information to parents through a social media site. Methods A Facebook site was launched for 11 months based on a question-and-answer service produced by a pediatrician and open to Facebook users over 18 years old. If the answer did not include a further referral to a health care service provider, the question was considered comprehensively answered. The site was funded by a pharmaceutical company, and it included an advertisement of a pharmaceutical product for children’s fever and pain. Results During the study, 768 questions were submitted: an average of 69.8 (SD 31.7) per month. There were 245,533 independent Facebook users on the site, with an average of 727.0 (SD 2280.6) per day. Infections were the most common theme in questions (355/768, 46.2%). Questions were more likely to be comprehensively answered if they were related to infections (279/355, 78.6%) than questions related to non-infectious symptoms (265/423, 64.2%, P=.003). Conclusions On this site aimed at parents of small children, personalized answers were an effective way of delivering information. The service is likely to have reduced the need for further contacts with a health care service provider in more than half of the cases. The site could serve as a model for publicly funded health information distribution. PMID:25189182

The emphasis on learning in content area classrooms is heavily dependent on remembering facts and memorizing definitions. Because of this, students often achieve shallow levels of comprehension and are deficient in the skills necessary to achieve deeper comprehension. Teaching students to generate self-explanation questions and answers related to teacher lectures and from reading text can improve comprehension. Students who attempt to explain what the content means understand it better and at a deeper level. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of teaching students to ask self-explanation questions as a means for improving comprehension. Eighth-grade students from three heterogeneous science classrooms participated in one of the treatment or comparison groups. The first treatment group was taught to generate self-explanation questions while the second treatment group was taught to generate self-explanation questions and to create explanatory answers using a rubric. The comparison group received their regular science instruction. Self-explanation question/answer participants scored significantly higher than the regular instruction group more often than the self-explanation question only group, on memory and essay measures. Analyses were performed with MANCOVA on all three groups' scores as a set. ANCOVA was used to determine if differences existed between groups on each of the dependent variables, and Bonferonni's post-hoc contrasts were used to determine where differences existed among treatment and comparison groups. Results revealed that students who were taught to generate self-explanation questions and/or to create explanatory answers outperformed the regular instruction students on some of the memory and essay measures. Additionally, teaching students a self-explanation strategy resulted in improved ability to respond to essay questions two weeks following the conclusion of the study compared to students who received regular instruction.

One challenge in science education assessment is that students often focus on surface features of questions rather than the underlying scientific principles. We investigated how student written responses to constructed-response questions about photosynthesis vary based on two surface features of the question: the species of plant and the order of two question prompts. We asked four versions of the question with different combinations of the two plant species and order of prompts in an introductory cell biology course. We found that there was not a significant difference in the content of student responses to versions of the question stem with different species or order of prompts, using both computerized lexical analysis and expert scoring. We conducted 20 face-to-face interviews with students to further probe the effects of question wording on student responses. During the interviews, we found that students thought that the plant species was neither relevant nor confusing when answering the question. Students identified the prompts as both relevant and confusing. However, this confusion was not specific to a single version. PMID:25999312

The current study explored the differential effects of two learning strategies, self-explanation and reading questions and answers, on students' test performance in the computer programming language JavaScript. Students' perceptions toward the two strategies as to their effectiveness in learning JavaScript was also explored by examining students'…

Question-answer (Q&A) is fundamental for dialogic instruction, an important pedagogical technique based on the free exchange of ideas and open-ended discussion. Automatically detecting Q&A is key to providing teachers with feedback on appropriate use of dialogic instructional strategies. In line with this, this paper studies the…

The Tax Reform Act of 1986 and subsequent legislation have radically altered the rules needed to maintain favorable tax status of tax-sheltered annuity plans for college employees. Application of the new rules is complex. Critical questions facing institutions and organizations are answered, and potential liabilities facing educational employers…

Discusses Compact Disc-Interactive (CD-I) using a question-and-answer format. Highlights include development of the CD-I technology; where to purchase discs and players; compatibility with other CD-ROM drives; how to make discs; authoring systems versus custom programs; entertainment and educational applications; licensing issues; specifications;…

This is a brief review of research on a variety of topics related to home education and answers the most common questions asked regarding Homeschooling. Examples of the topics addressed are: the teaching parent's education level, academic achievement of students, population growth, philosophy, government (state) regulation and homeschool…

The purpose of this guide is to answer common questions about public sector labor relations with special emphasis on how this sector differs from the private sector. A beginning section offers general information defining and explaining public sector labor relations. A segment on labor relations law details legislation and the function of…

Answers commonly asked questions on library law that may arise under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Discusses fees for public records, rules libraries must follow for public information requests, individual library information-provision policy, and FOIA requirements for creation and disclosure of library records. (AEF)

In two studies we investigated 2-year-old children's answers to predicate-focus questions depending on the preceding context. Children were presented with a successive series of short video clips showing transitive actions (e.g., frog washing duck) in which either the action (action-new) or the patient (patient-new) was the changing, and therefore…

Answersquestions regarding the impact of the Freedom of Information Act on libraries. Highlights include the definition of a public body as used in the act, which public records are covered, circulation record, how to submit requests for records, and who is responsible for complying with requests for records. (LRW)

This study examined the comprehension subsection of Nelson-Denny Reading Test Form G (Brown, Fishco, & Hanna, 1993a) and some urban developmental students' performance on it. Three types of question-answer relations were identified using Pearson and Johnson's taxonomy. Students' performance was expressed in their scores on the three types of…

AT THE ALABAMA STATE CONFERENCE ON PARAMEDICAL EDUCATION IN JUNE 1966, PARTICIPANTS IDENTIFIED 37 PROBLEMS FOR DISCUSSION. THIS REPORT STATES THE QUESTIONS AND THE ANSWERS OFFERED BY CONSULTANTS AT THE CONFERENCE. TOPICS ARE (1) ASSOCIATE DEGREE NURSING PROGRAMS, WITH EMPHASIS ON ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIZATION, THE ROLE OF ADMINISTRATORS, PERSONNEL…

This guide provides Federal income tax information for refugees and their sponsors. Issues covered in a question and answer format include: (1) the tax status of refugees; (2) the criteria for declaring a refugee a dependent; (3) deductions for contributions to refugees or organizations that support them; (4) the distinction between resident and…

This brochure provides answers to the following questions: (1) Why do school districts, schools, teachers, parents, and communities need to plan for the continuation of learning for students during flu season this year? (2) How should districts and schools go about planning to continue students' education when they are at home because of H1N1?…

This book on the subject of nutrition is written in the form of often-asked questions and detailed, informative answers. In ten chapters the following range of nutrition topics is covered: (1) meaning of RDA, nutrition labeling, calorie tables, nutrient density; (2) adequate diet, pregnancy, physical fitness, vitamins, diet for athletes, baby…

Presented is a description of the development and use of a technical system designed to provide students (in this case, engineering students) situated at remote sites a means for better interaction with their instructors. For example, students at such sites cannot get their immediate questionsanswered because of the physical location of their…

Intended for those members of the higher education community who write and publish (and that includes both students who write research papers, faculty who produce scholarly articles, copy centers, and college stores), this easy-to-understand guide explains the requirements of United States copyright law. The guide, in question and answer format,…

In two experimental studies, the influence of question-based reflection on the quality of design solutions was investigated. Students and experts with different know-how and professional experience had to design an artefact that should meet a list of requirements. Subsequently, they were asked to answer a system of interrogative questions…

Identifies useful Internet sites about attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and the results of searching these sites to answer common questions concerning incidence of ADHD, basic information about Ritalin drug therapy, educational placement of students with ADHD, sources of information about special needs, and what parents can do at…

Using a question and answer format, this booklet explains state high school graduation requirements for classified special education students in New Jersey. Classified pupils must meet all state and local graduation requirements unless exempted in their individualized educational programs (IEPs). Fulfilling IEP requirements qualifies a classified…

We discuss a mathematics capstone course designed to help students grow in mathematical independence. We describe how the course is structured to support this goal and the major assignments: a course wiki, a group expository project, and an individual problem to solve and extend. Students learn to ask and answer their own questions, helping them…

One of the major new efforts of the U.S. Geological Survey is the National Stream Quality Accounting Network (NASQAN). This circular is intended to answer some of the frequently asked questions concerning concepts used in establishing NASQAN, its purposes, design, value, and future plans.

Discusses the strengths and weaknesses of patrons and reference librarians as sources of data for the evaluation of the effectiveness of answers to reference questions. Describes the Wisconsin-Ohio Reference Evaluation program and considers staffing patterns, time spent, collection size, and bibliographic instruction. Reference Transaction…

The National Aquatic Resource Surveys were designed to answer the question of the status and trends in the condition of each of our aquatic resources: coastal waters, lakes and reservoirs, rivers and streams and wetlands. At the higher levels, the EPA is consistently asked a see...

This is an account of the experience of a college instructor and a group of prospective social studies teachers as they answer a simple question concerned with direction of travel through the Panama Canal and explore the reactions of students. The situation originates in a class discussion focusing on ways of asking and responding to classroom…

Reviews user-adaptable learning games that can be customized for any subject, including Tic Tac Show and the Game Show from Computer Advanced Ideas, which are question-answer learning programs based on game shows, and Master Match from Computer Advanced Ideas and Square Pairs from Scholastic Inc., which are based on the card game Concentration.…

This booklet, in question-and-answer format, is intended to guide service providers in colleges and universities in supplying required special services to students who are hard of hearing. Introductory material explains the mission and objectives of PEPNet, which is to provide the coordination and collaboration in technical assistance to…

Examining over 20 years of research findings, including the most recent research on child care and child development, this book attempts to answer the three most important questions parents have about day care: Is day care harmful? Are babies damaged by the fact that their mothers work? and, Are working parents, by being absent during most of the…

Eighteen corporations and manufacturers provided answers to many questions posed at a public meeting on energy efficiency standards for eight consumer products. Questions on the regulations concerning the manufacturing standards, performance standards, and testing standards are included. Questions were posed about air conditioners, refrigerators, refrigerator-freezers, stoves (ranges), ovens, clothes dryers, oil fired burners, water heaters, furnaces, etc. A presentation containing information pertaining to the values of average annual energy consumption per unit used by DOE in its analysis leading to proposed energy efficiency standards for nine types of consumer products is included. (MCW)

Research on the effects of Direct Instruction (DI) among students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has only recently emerged. A benefit of DI is that it can be implemented with groups of students, which makes it potentially a cost effective method of instruction for some skills. In this study, we examined the effects of DI on teaching secondary students with ASD to answer three "wh-" questions. Using a multiple probe design across behaviors, results indicated the participants mastered two of the three "wh-" question types and made progress with the remaining question type. These results are discussed along with implications for educators instructing students with ASD. PMID:27312714

The problem of quantification of intelligence of humans, and of intelligent systems, has been a challenging and controversial topic. IQ tests have been traditionally used to quantify human intelligence based on results of test designed by psychologists. It is in general very difficult to quantify intelligence. In this paper we consider a simple Question-Answering (Q-A) system and use this to quantify intelligence. We quantify intelligence as a vector with three components. The components consist of a measure of knowledge in asking questions, effectiveness of questions asked, and correctness of deduction. We formalize these parameters and have conducted experiments on humans to measure these parameters. 20 refs.

The published medical literature and online medical resources are important sources to help physicians make patient treatment decisions. Traditional sources used for information retrieval (e.g., PubMed) often return a list of documents in response to a user's query. Frequently the number of returned documents from large knowledge repositories is large and makes information seeking practical only "after hours" and not in the clinical setting. This study developed novel algorithms, and designed, implemented, and evaluated a medical definitional questionanswering system (MedQA). MedQA automatically analyzed a large number of electronic documents to generate short and coherent answers in response to definitional questions (i.e., questions with the format of "What is X?"). Our preliminary cognitive evaluation shows that MedQA out-performed three other online information systems (Google, OneLook, and PubMed) in two important efficiency criteria; namely, time spent and number of actions taken for a physician to identify a definition. It is our contention that questionanswering systems that aggregate pertinent information scattered across different documents have the potential to address clinical information needs within a timeframe necessary to meet the demands of clinicians. PMID:17462961

"Don't know" (DK) responses to interview questions are conceptually heterogeneous, and may represent uncertainty or clear statements about the contents of memory. A study examined the subjective intent of DK responses in relation to the objective status of information queried, in the context of memory distorting procedures. Participants viewed a video and responded to answerable and unanswerable questions phrased in misleading or nonmisleading formats, while hypnotized or not hypnotized. Subjective meanings of DK responses were queried, and a recognition measure assessed the contents of memory. Lower DK and accuracy rates were consistently associated with unanswerable and misleading questions. One-third of DK responses were statements that the information had no not presented. When these were recoded, accuracy estimates for answerablequestions decreased and more so for hypnotized participants. These results demonstrate that DK responses convey different types of information, thus accuracy estimates in studies that permit DK responses may be misestimated. Robust risks associated with asking unanswerable questions and asking questions at all were observed. Implications for working with DK responses during interviews are discussed. PMID:18808279

A new scoring procedure for multiplechoice tests attempts to assess partial knowledge and to restrict guessing. It is a variant of Coombs' elimination scoring method, adapted for use with the carbon-shield answer sheets commonly used with answer-until-correct scoring. Examinees are directed to erase the carbon shields of choices they are certain…

Orthodontists need to know the effectiveness, efficiency and predictability of treatment approaches and methods, which can be learned only by carefully studying and evaluating treatment outcomes. The best data for outcomes come from randomized clinical trials (RCTs), but retrospective data can provide satisfactory evidence if the subjects were a well-defined patient group, all the patients were accounted for, and the percentages of patients with various possible outcomes are presented along with measures of the central tendency and variation. Meta-analysis of multiple RCTs done in a similar way and systematic reviews of the literature can strengthen clinically-useful evidence, but reviews that are too broadly based are more likely to blur than clarify the information clinicians need. Reviews that are tightly focused on seeking the answer to specific clinical questions and evaluating the quality of the evidence available to answer the question are much more likely to provide clinically useful data. PMID:24198455

Most people know that electric power lines, like the wiring in our homes, can cause serious electric shocks if we`re not careful. Many people also want to know whether the electric and magnetic fields (EMF) produced by power lines and other electrical devices cause health effects. The purpose of this pamphlet is to answer some common questions that the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) receives about the possible effects of power lines on health. (BPA is the Pacific Northwest`s Federal electric power marketing agency.) First, some basic electrical terms are defined, and electric and magnetic fields are described. Next, answers are given to several questions about recent scientific studies. We then describe how BPA is addressing public concerns raised by these studies. Some important information about electrical safety follows. The last section tells you how to obtain more detailed information about the health and safety issues summarized in this pamphlet.

Most people know that electric power lines, like the wiring in our homes, can cause serious electric shocks if we`re not careful. Many people also want to know whether the electric and magnetic fields (EMF) produced by power lines and other electrical devices cause health effects. The purpose of this booklet is to answer some common questions that the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) receives about the possible effects of power lines on health. First, some basic electrical terms are defined, and electric and magnetic fields are debed. Next, answers are given to several questions about recent scientific studies. Some important information about electrical safety follows. We then describe how BPA is addressing public concerns about potential health effects of power lines. The last section tells you how to obtain more detailed information about the health and safety issues summarized in this booklet.

This study examines the use of smartphones by Alabama Advanced Practice Nurses to find information to address clinical questions and seeks to describe the types of questionsanswered using smartphones; barriers to information seeking; apps and online resources perceived as most helpful; and training/resource needs. Information collected in this study can be used by libraries that serve nursing students to develop training and resources to assist both nursing students and practicing nurses to become more efficient and effective information seekers. PMID:25927507

The purpose of this study was to compare certain characteristics of multiple-choice (MC) and complex multiple-choice (CMC) achievement tests designed to measure knowledge in medical-surgical nursing. Each of 268 junior and senior nursing students from four midwestern schools responded to one of four test forms. MC items were developed by…

In a national evaluation of environmental literacy in Israel, (Negev, Sagy, Garb, Salzberg, & Tal, 2008), the authors included both multiplechoicequestions and open questions. In this article the authors describe the qualitative analysis of the answers to an open question regarding a local environmental problem. Most participants specified solid…

Background Many workers have questions about occupational safety and health (OSH). It is unknown whether workers are able to find correct, evidence-based answers to OSH questions when they use common information sources, such as websites, or whether they would benefit from using an easily accessible, free-of-charge online network of OSH experts providing advice. Objective To assess the rate of correct, evidence-based answers to OSH questions in a group of workers who used an online network of OSH experts (intervention group) compared with a group of workers who used common information sources (control group). Methods In a quasi-experimental study, workers in the intervention and control groups were randomly offered 2 questions from a pool of 16 standardized OSH questions. Both questions were sent by mail to all participants, who had 3 weeks to answer them. The intervention group was instructed to use only the online network ArboAntwoord, a network of about 80 OSH experts, to solve the questions. The control group was instructed that they could use all information sources available to them. To assess answer correctness as the main study outcome, 16 standardized correct model answers were constructed with the help of reviewers who performed literature searches. Subsequently, the answers provided by all participants in the intervention (n = 94 answers) and control groups (n = 124 answers) were blinded and compared with the correct model answers on the degree of correctness. Results Of the 94 answers given by participants in the intervention group, 58 were correct (62%), compared with 24 of the 124 answers (19%) in the control group, who mainly used informational websites found via Google. The difference between the 2 groups was significant (rate difference = 43%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 30%–54%). Additional analysis showed that the rate of correct main conclusions of the answers was 85 of 94 answers (90%) in the intervention group and 75 of 124 answers (61%) in

Introduction: In recent years, the introduction of social question and answer services and other Internet tools have expanded the ways in which people have their questionsanswered. There has been speculation and debate over whether such services and other Internet tools are replacing library virtual reference services. Method: Most previous…

This paper utilizes Toulmin's original framework to analyse over 400 answers given by 11-year-olds to a question on a written mathematics test. The question required children to say whether a given statement is true and give a written explanation. Categorizations of answers are developed from the data and examined, suggesting that many children…

The document presents answers to frequently asked questions about plans for cleanup and decontamination activities at Three Mile Island, Unit 2. Answers to the questions asked are based on information in the NRC 'Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement related to decontamination and disposal of radioactive wastes resulting from March 28, 1979, accident, Three Mile Island Nuclear Station, Unit 2,' NUREG-0683.

Income nonresponse is a significant problem in survey data, with rates as high as 50%, yet we know little about why it occurs. It is plausible that the way respondents answer survey questions (e.g., their voice and speech characteristics, and their question- answering behavior) can predict whether they will provide income data, and will reflect…

Communication is frequently characterized by a sequence of questions and answers. Little is known about how well students who are deaf or hard of hearing (deaf/HH) understand their hearing classmates in the context of an inclusive setting. This study explored the communication skills used by deaf/HH children when asking and answeringquestions in…

Typical questions surrounding industrial control system (ICS) cyber security always lead back to: What could a cyber attack do to my system(s) and; how much should I worry about it? These two leading questions represent only a fraction of questions asked when discussing cyber security as it applies to any program, company, business, or organization. The intent of this paper is to open a dialog of important pertinent questions and answers that managers of nuclear facilities engaged in nuclear facility security and safeguards should examine, i.e., what questions should be asked; and how do the answers affect an organization's ability to effectively safeguard and secure nuclear material. When a cyber intrusion is reported, what does that mean? Can an intrusion be detected or go un-noticed? Are nuclear security or safeguards systems potentially vulnerable? What about the digital systems employed in process monitoring, and international safeguards? Organizations expend considerable efforts to ensure that their facilities can maintain continuity of operations against physical threats. However, cyber threats particularly on ICSs may not be well known or understood, and often do not receive adequate attention. With the disclosure of the Stuxnet virus that has recently attacked nuclear infrastructure, many organizations have recognized the need for an urgent interest in cyber attacks and defenses against them. Several questions arise including discussions about the insider threat, adequate cyber protections, program readiness, encryption, and many more. These questions, among others, are discussed so as to raise the awareness and shed light on ways to protect nuclear facilities and materials against such attacks.

Attempting to retrieve information from memory enhances subsequent learning even if the retrieval attempt is unsuccessful. Recent evidence suggests that this benefit materializes only if subsequent study occurs immediately after the retrieval attempt. Previous studies have prompted retrieval using a cue (e.g., whale-???) that has no intrinsic answer. Experiment 1 replicated prior word pair studies, but in Experiment 2, when participants learned meaningful trivia questions, testing enhanced learning even when subsequent study was delayed. Even in Experiment 3, when subsequent study was delayed by up to 24 hr, tests enhanced learning on a final test another 24 hr later. These findings may give comfort to educators who worry that asking a question or giving a test, on which students inevitably make mistakes, impairs learning if feedback is not immediate. They also suggest that there is a consensus in the literature thus far: Questions with rich semantic content enhance subsequent learning even when feedback is delayed, but less meaningful questions without an intrinsic answer enhance learning only when feedback is immediate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved). PMID:23855547

Background The huge amount of biomedical-molecular data increasingly produced is providing scientists with potentially valuable information. Yet, such data quantity makes difficult to find and extract those data that are most reliable and most related to the biomedical questions to be answered, which are increasingly complex and often involve many different biomedical-molecular aspects. Such questions can be addressed only by comprehensively searching and exploring different types of data, which frequently are ordered and provided by different data sources. Search Computing has been proposed for the management and integration of ranked results from heterogeneous search services. Here, we present its novel application to the explorative search of distributed biomedical-molecular data and the integration of the search results to answer complex biomedical questions. Results A set of available bioinformatics search services has been modelled and registered in the Search Computing framework, and a Bioinformatics Search Computing application (Bio-SeCo) using such services has been created and made publicly available at http://www.bioinformatics.deib.polimi.it/bio-seco/seco/. It offers an integrated environment which eases search, exploration and ranking-aware combination of heterogeneous data provided by the available registered services, and supplies global results that can support answering complex multi-topic biomedical questions. Conclusions By using Bio-SeCo, scientists can explore the very large and very heterogeneous biomedical-molecular data available. They can easily make different explorative search attempts, inspect obtained results, select the most appropriate, expand or refine them and move forward and backward in the construction of a global complex biomedical query on multiple distributed sources that could eventually find the most relevant results. Thus, it provides an extremely useful automated support for exploratory integrated bio search, which is

Background Community-based questionanswering (CQA) sites play an important role in addressing health information needs. However, a significant number of posted questions remain unanswered. Automatically answering the posted questions can provide a useful source of information for Web-based health communities. Objective In this study, we developed an algorithm to automatically answer health-related questions based on past questions and answers (QA). We also aimed to understand information embedded within Web-based health content that are good features in identifying valid answers. Methods Our proposed algorithm uses information retrieval techniques to identify candidate answers from resolved QA. To rank these candidates, we implemented a semi-supervised leaning algorithm that extracts the best answer to a question. We assessed this approach on a curated corpus from Yahoo! Answers and compared against a rule-based string similarity baseline. Results On our dataset, the semi-supervised learning algorithm has an accuracy of 86.2%. Unified medical language system–based (health related) features used in the model enhance the algorithm’s performance by proximately 8%. A reasonably high rate of accuracy is obtained given that the data are considerably noisy. Important features distinguishing a valid answer from an invalid answer include text length, number of stop words contained in a test question, a distance between the test question and other questions in the corpus, and a number of overlapping health-related terms between questions. Conclusions Overall, our automated QA system based on historical QA pairs is shown to be effective according to the dataset in this case study. It is developed for general use in the health care domain, which can also be applied to other CQA sites. PMID:27485666

In rheumatology and other medical specialties there is a discrepancy between the widespread use and the imprecise designation of glucocorticoid treatment regimens. Verbal descriptions of glucocorticoid treatment regimens used in various phases of diseases vary between countries and institutions. Given this background, a workshop under the auspices of the EULAR Standing Committee on International Clinical Studies including Therapeutic Trials was held to discuss this issue and to seek a consensus on nomenclature for glucocorticoid treatment. This report summarises the panel's discussion and recognises that answers derived from consensus conferences are not definitive. Nevertheless, recommendations on glucocorticoid treatment are presented that (1) reflect current and best knowledge available and (2) take into account current clinical practice. A question-answer rationale presentation style has been chosen to convey the messages, to summarise the meeting in a readable format, and to avoid dogmatism. PMID:12117678

Benford's Law describes the finding that the distribution of leading (or leftmost) digits of innumerable datasets follows a well-defined logarithmic trend, rather than an intuitive uniformity. In practice this means that the most common leading digit is 1, with an expected frequency of 30.1%, and the least common is 9, with an expected frequency of 4.6%. Currently, the most common application of Benford's Law is in detecting number invention and tampering such as found in accounting-, tax-, and voter-fraud. We demonstrate that answers to end-of-chapter exercises in physics and chemistry textbooks conform to Benford's Law. Subsequently, we investigate whether this fact can be used to gain advantage over random guessing in multiple-choice tests, and find that while testbank answers in introductory physics closely conform to Benford's Law, the testbank is nonetheless secure against such a Benford's attack for banal reasons. PMID:25689468

The USAF OEHL conducted an extensive literature review of Video Display Terminals (VDTs) and the health problems commonly associated with them. The report is presented in a question-and-answer format in an attempt to paraphrase the most commonly asked questions about VDTs that are forwarded to USAF OEHL/RZN. The questions and answers have been divided into several topic areas: Ionizing Radiation; Nonionizing Radiation; Optical Radiation; Ultrasound; Static Electricity; Health Complaints/Ergonomics; Pregnancy.

Conventional wisdom states that students rarely choose absurd multiplechoice distractors, which therefore simply add noise. In contrast, it is observed that introductory astronomy students are sometimes inexorably drawn to multiplechoiceanswers that are clearly absurd to an expert. I demonstrate this phenomenon using data from the University of Alabama's introductory astronomy for non-majors course and investigate possible explanations, with an eye towards improving multiplechoice as an assessment method. I finish with a plea for other instructors to include the same questions in their exams in order to dramatically increase the sample size and uncover correlations with other student behavior that can help understand what leads them to make such obvious mistakes.

This paper explores some key aspects of "today's school", as opposed to those that have characterized "yesterday's school", with the final aim of shedding light on "tomorrow's school". In this direction, the paper puts forward tentative answers to some key questions related to the new characteristics and roles of teachers and students (main actors of the learning process) and the new features/ potentialities of contemporary educational tools which, in turn, require the enactment of innovative pedagogical approaches and educational methods. The emerging picture of the present learning landscape helps in figuring out a future situation where learning possibilities are substantially increased.

There are an increasing number of students with learning difficulties attending university, and currently much debate about the suitability and ability of students with dyslexia at both medical school and once they graduate into clinical practice. In this study we describe the performance of students with dyslexia compared to fellow students in extended matching questions (EMQ), short answerquestion (SAQ) and observed structured clinical examinations (OSCE) and discuss the implications of differences identified. End of year assessment results for 5 cohorts of medical students were analysed. Students with dyslexia did less well overall in all assessment types in year 1 but this difference was not evident in later years. Dyslexic students who were allowed extra time in written assessments did better than dyslexic students who did not have their assessment concessions in place. When station type within OSCE assessments was analysed students with dyslexia did less well in both examination skills and data interpretation stations in years 1, 2 & 3. In conclusion, differences in performance in written assessments are only evident early in training and may be partly due to delayed adjustment to medical school or implementation of assessment concessions. Performance in individual OSCE stations is dependent on station type. Why students with specific learning difficulties (SpLDs) perform less well in examination skills and data analysis OSCE stations requires further investigation. PMID:21249518

Multiple pieces of text describing various pieces of evidence in clinical trials are often needed in answering a clinical question. We explore a multi-document summarization approach to automatically find this information for questions about effects of using a medication to treat a disease. Sentences in relevant documents are ranked according to various features by a machine-learning approach. Those with higher scores are more important and will be included in the summary. The presence of clinical outcomes and their polarity are incorporated into the approach as features for determining importance of sentences, and the effectiveness of this is investigated, along with that of other textual features. The results show that information on clinical outcomes improves the performance of summarization. PMID:17238411

To address one of the most important questions in planetary science Is there life on Mars? The scientific community must turn to less costly means of exploring the surface of the Red Planet. The United Kingdom's Beagle 2 Mars lander concept was a small meter-size lander with a scientific payload constituting a large proportion of the flown mass designed to supply answers to the question about life on Mars. A possible reason why Beagle 2 did not send any data was that it was a one-off attempt to land. As Steve Squyres said at the time: "It's difficult to land on Mars - if you want to succeed you have to send two of everything".

Most people know that electric power lines, like the wiring in our homes, can cause serious electric shocks if we`re not careful. Many people also want to know whether the EMF (electric and magnetic fields) produced by power lines and other electrical devices affect our health. Although no adverse health effects of electric power EMF have been confirmed, there is continued scientific uncertainty about this issue. Research on EMF is ongoing throughout the world. The purpose of this booklet is to answer some common questions that the BPA (Bonneville Power Administration) receives about the possible effects of power lines on health. First, some basic electrical terms are defined, and electric and magnetic fields are debed. Next, answers are given to several questions about recent scientific studies. Some important information about electrical safety follows. We then describe how BPA is addressing public concerns about potential health effects of power lines. The last section tells you how to obtain more detailed information about the health and safety issues summarized in this booklet.

This study investigates brain responses to violations of information structure in wh-question-answer pairs, with particular emphasis on violations of focus assignment in it-clefts (It was the queen that silenced the banker). Two types of ERP responses in answers to wh-questions were found. First, all words in the focus-marking (cleft) position elicited a large positivity (P3b) characteristic of sentence-final constituents, as did the final words of these sentences, which suggests that focused elements may trigger integration effects like those seen at sentence end. Second, the focusing of an inappropriate referent elicited a smaller, N400-like effect. The results show that comprehenders actively use structural focus cues and discourse-level restrictions during online sentence processing. These results, based on visual stimuli, were different from the brain response to auditory focus violations indicated by pitch-accent (Hruska et al. 2000), but similar to brain responses to newly introduced discourse referents (Bornkessel et al. 2003). PMID:17517429

Battery second use – putting used plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) batteries into secondary service following their automotive tenure – has been proposed as a means to decrease the cost of PEVs while providing low cost energy storage to other fields (e.g. electric utility markets). To understand the value of used automotive batteries, however, we must first answer several key questions related to National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has developed a methodology and the requisite tools to answer these questions, including NREL’s Battery Lifetime Simulation Tool (BLAST). Herein we introduce these methods and tools, and demonstrate their application. We have found that capacity fade from automotive use has a much larger impact on second use value than resistance growth. Where capacity loss is driven by calendar effects more than cycling effects, average battery temperature during automotive service – which is often driven by climate – is found to be the single factor with the largest effect on remaining value. Installing hardware and software capabilities onboard the vehicle that can both infer remaining battery capacity from in-situ measurements, as well as track average battery temperature over time, will thereby facilitate the second use of automotive batteries.

A pilot study was performed for setting up the Dokuz Eylül University Breast Tumor DNA Bank (DEUBTB) to facilitate the sharing of tumor DNA/RNA samples and related data from cases collected by collaborators specializing in the breast cancer diseases between 2004 and 2006. The pilot study aimed to provide answers for certain questions on: (1) ethical concerns (informing the volunteer for donating specimen, anonymizing the sample information, procedure on sample request), (2) obtaining and processing samples (technical issues, flowchart), (3) storing samples and their products (storing forms and conditions), (4) clinical database (which clinical data to store), (5) management organization (quality and quantity of personnel, flowchart for management relations), (6) financial issues (establishment and maintenance costs). When the bank had 64 samples, even though it is quite ready to supply samples for a research project, it revealed many questions on details that may be answered in more than one way, pointing that all biobanks need to be controlled by a higher degree of management party which develops and offers quality standards for these establishments. PMID:18392956

The capabilities of satellite Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) are well known, and utilized across a wide range of academic and commercial applications. However there is a tendency, particularly in commercial applications, for users to ask 'What can we study with InSAR?'. When establishing a new technique this approach is important, but InSAR has been possible for 20 years now and, even accounting for new and innovative algorithms, this ground has been thoroughly explored. Too many studies conclude 'We show the ground is moving here, by this much', and mention the wider context as an afterthought. The focus needs to shift towards first asking the right questions - in fields as diverse as hazard awareness, resource optimization, financial considerations and pure scientific enquiry - and then working out how to achieve the best possible answers. Depending on the question, InSAR (and ground deformation more generally) may provide a large or small contribution to the overall solution, and there are usually benefits to integrating a number of techniques to capitalize on the complementary capabilities and provide the most useful measurements. However, there is still a gap between measurements and answers, and unlocking the value of the data relies heavily on appropriate visualization, integrated analysis, communication between technique and application experts, and appropriate use of modelling. We present a number of application examples, and demonstrate how their usefulness can be transformed by moving from a focus on data to answers - integrating complementary geodetic, geophysical and geological datasets and geophysical modeling with appropriate visualization, to enable comprehensive solution-focused interpretation. It will also discuss how forthcoming developments are likely to further advance realisation of the full potential satellite InSAR holds.

This research set out to compare the quality, length and nature of (1) exam responses in combined question and answer booklets, with (2) responses in separate answer booklets in order to inform choices about response format. Combined booklets are thought to support candidates by giving more information on what is expected of them. Anecdotal…

This study presents an experiment that explores the patterns of answers to yes-no truth-functional questions in English and Korean. The answering patterns are examined from 12 Korean-English bilingual children and 10 Korean-monolingual children. Four types of sentences in relation to given situations (Wason in "Br J Psychol" 52:133-142,…

This paper reports on data collected via an audience response system, where a convenience sample of 300 adults aged 17-50 pressed a button to register their answers for twenty multiplechoicequestions. The responses were then discussed with the respondents at the time. The original dataset includes physics, biology and chemistry questions. The…

Postsecondary education often requires students to use higher-order cognitive skills (HOCS) such as analysis, evaluation, and creation as they assess situations and apply what they have learned during lecture to the formulation of solutions. Summative assessment of these abilities is often accomplished using short-answerquestions (SAQs). Quandary…

Articles in the scientific literature and lay press over the past several years have implied that computed tomography (CT) may cause cancer and that physicians and patients must exercise caution in its use. Although there is broad agreement on the latter point--unnecessary medical tests of any type should always be avoided--there is considerable controversy surrounding the question of whether, or to what extent, CT scans can lead to future cancers. Although the doses used in CT are higher than those used in conventional radiographic examinations, they are still 10 to 100 times lower than the dose levels that have been reported to increase the risk of cancer. Despite the fact that at the low doses associated with a CT scan the risk either is too low to be convincingly demonstrated or does not exist, the magnitude of the concern among patients and some medical professionals that CT scans increase cancer risk remains unreasonably high. In this article, common questions about CT scanning and radiation are answered to provide physicians with accurate information on which to base their medical decisions and respond to patient questions. PMID:26434964

While struggling with the current pressures of educational reform, some educators will ask whether their efforts make economic sense. Questioning the future makeup of the nation's workforce, many wonder how the educational system should be tempered to better prepare today's youth. This chapter answers educators' and parents' questions around the effect of fluctuations in the American economy on the future of education. The authors offer reassurance that good jobs will always be available, but warn that those jobs will require a new level of skills: expert thinking and complex communication. Schools need to go beyond their current curriculum and prepare students to use reading, math, and communication skills to build a deeper and more thoughtful understanding of subject matter. To explain the implications of the nation's changing economy on jobs, technology, and therefore education, the authors address a range of vital questions. Citing occupational distribution data, the chapter explores the supply and range of jobs in the future, as well as why changes in the U.S. job distribution have taken place. As much of the explanation for the shift in job distribution over the past several decades is due to the computerization of the workforce, the authors discuss how computers will affect the future composition of the workforce. The chapter also addresses the consequences of educational improvement on earnings distribution. The authors conclude that beyond workforce preparedness, students need to learn how to be contributing members of a democracy. PMID:17017257

Parents of children who stutter are often advised to reduce the number of questions they ask their children. Implicit in this advice is the assumption that children who stutter will be more disfluent when answeringquestions. This study assessed parent-child conversational speech for 8 parent-child pairs to determine the relative amounts of disfluency in the child's responses to questions versus making assertions. Length and complexity of the children's utterances and the frequency of the parents' requests by level of demand were also evaluated. Results suggested that the responses made by the children to their parents' requests were significantly less likely to contain disfluencies than were their assertions. Also, longer and more complex utterances were more likely to contain disfluencies, regardless of their designation as assertions or responses. Parents were shown to favor request types of lower levels of demand in conversations. Requests posed with greater levels of demand were somewhat more likely to yield disfluent responses than were those at a lower demand level. PMID:1494268

When young children answerquestions, they do so more slowly than adults and appear to have difficulty finding the appropriate words. Because children leave gaps before they respond, it is possible that they could answer faster with gestures than with words. In this study, we compare gestural and verbal responses from one child between the ages of 1;4 and 3;5, to adult Where and Which questions, which can be answered with gestures and/or words. After extracting all adult Where and Which questions and child answers from longitudinal videotaped sessions, we examined the timing from the end of each question to the start of the response, and compared the timing for gestures and words. Child responses could take the form of a gesture or word(s); the latter could be words repeated from the adult question or new words retrieved by the child. Or responses could be complex: a gesture + word repeat, gesture + new word, or word repeat + new word. Gestures were the fastest overall, followed successively by word-repeats, then new-word responses. This ordering, with gestures ahead of words, suggests that the child knows what to answer but needs more time to retrieve any relevant words. In short, word retrieval and articulation appear to be bottlenecks in the timing of responses: both add to the planning required in answering a question. PMID:26217253

Item analysis can serve as a useful tool in improving multiple-choicequestions used in Extension programming. It can identify gaps between instruction and assessment. An item analysis of Mississippi Master Cattle Producer program multiple-choice examination responses was performed to determine the difficulty of individual examinations, assess the…

Assessment is central to any educational process. Number Right (NR) scoring method is a conventional scoring method for multiplechoice items, where students need to pick one option as the correct answer. One point is awarded for the correct response and zero for any other responses. However, it has been heavily criticized for guessing and failure…

The aim of this study was to examine if there is a difference in the performance on non-linear problems regarding age, gender, and solving situation, and whether the multiple-choiceanswer format influences students' thinking. A total of 112 students, aged 15-16 and 18-19, were asked to solve problems for which solutions based on proportionality…

Ordinal response modes for multiplechoice tests are those under which the examinee marks one or more choices in an effort to identify the correct choice, or include it in a proper subset of the choices. Two ordinal response modes: answer-until-correct, and Coomb's elimination of choices which examinees identify as wrong, were analyzed for scoring…

To compare different scoring algorithms for Pick-N multiple correct answermultiple-choice (MC) exams regarding test reliability, student performance, total item discrimination and item difficulty. Data from six 3rd year medical students' end of term exams in internal medicine from 2005 to 2008 at Munich University were analysed (1,255 students,…

Compatible solutes are small organic osmolytes including but not limited to sugars, polyols, amino acids, and their derivatives. They are compatible with cell metabolism even at molar concentrations. A variety of organisms synthesize or take up compatible solutes for adaptation to extreme environments. In addition to their protective action on whole cells, compatible solutes display significant effects on biomolecules in vitro. These include stabilization of native protein and nucleic acid structures. They are used as additives in polymerase chain reactions to increase product yield and specificity, but also in other nucleic acid and protein applications. Interactions of compatible solutes with nucleic acids and protein-nucleic acid complexes are much less understood than the corresponding interactions of compatible solutes with proteins. Although we may begin to understand solute/nucleic acid interactions there are only few answers to the many questions we have. I summarize here the current state of knowledge and discuss possible molecular mechanisms and thermodynamics. PMID:18522725

This article addresses selected concepts and procedures related to orofacial myology in a question and answer format. Topics include tongue-tip placement for swallowing; a masseter-contraction swallow; temporary anchorage devices utilized in orthodontic treatment; relapse following orthodontic treatment; some advantages and disadvantages of fixed and removable orthodontic appliances; the extraction of teeth in orthodontic treatment; posterior and anterior crossbite considerations; and the importance of recasting the emphasis and focus of myofunctional therapy to orofacial rest posture therapy. In addition, this article promotes projects that orofacial myologists and orthodontists can mutually undertake to assist in advancing the data base regarding orofacial myofunctional disorders, thereby serving to enhance the reputation and value of orofacial myofunctional therapy within the dental profession. PMID:20572434

'Military-civilian humanitarianism'--or the coming together of military forces and civilian aid agencies to deal with the human suffering from complex emergencies--has numerous forms, but disenchantment has resulted from the Somalia and Bosnia syndromes. There is little political will at present, but evidence from the immediate post-Cold War era suggests how multilateral military operations could expand or contract in future to the benefit or peril of war victims. Partly a literature review but more importantly a framework for interpreting recent publications, this essay seeks to move beyond exchanging assertions. There is a contextualisation of recent literature; a definition of military-civilian humanitarianism; a discussion of possible military contributions to humanitarian action; a framework to assess the effectiveness of military-civilian humanitarianism; and a preliminary analysis of experience from northern Iraq, Somalia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Haiti. Caveat lector: At this point in time, there are still 'more questions than answers'. PMID:9235222

Diversity, evolution, and epidemiology of HIV are directly relevant to HIV transmission and pathogenesis; hence, they play a key role in antiretroviral treatment and vaccine design. Global HIV whole-genome sequencing would provide a treasure chest of data to answer many questions still open in these fields. An article by Berg et al. in this issue of theJournal of Clinical Microbiologydescribes a universal strategy to amplify and sequence heterogeneous HIV whole genomes (M. G. Berg, J. Yamaguchi, E. Alessandri-Gradt, R. W. Tell, J.-C. Plantier, and C. A. Brennan, J Clin Microbiol 54:868-882, 2016,http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/JCM.02479-15). PMID:26791367

ContactFinder is an intelligent agent whose approach to assisting users is valuable and innovative in the following four ways. First, ContactFinder operates proactively in reading and responding to messages on electronic bulletin boards rather than acting in response to user queries. Second, ContactFinder assists users by referring them to other people who can help them, rather than attempting to find information that directly answers the user`s specific question. Third, ContactFinder categorizes messages and extracts their topic areas using a set of heuristics that are very efficient and demonstrably highly effective. Fourth, ContactFinder posts its referrals back to the bulletin boards rather than simply communicating with specific users, to increase the information density and connectivity of the system. This paper discusses these aspects of the system and demonstrates their effectiveness in over six months of use on a large-scale internal bulletin board.

Diagnostic information accumulated over four decades of research suggests a directionality of toroidal motion for energetic ions responsible for fusion neutron production in the Dense Plasma Focus (DPF) and existence of an axial component of magnetic field even under conditions of azimuthal symmetry. This is at variance with the traditional view of Dense Plasma Focus as a purely irrotational compressive flow. The difficulty in understanding the experimental situation from a theoretical standpoint arises from polarity of the observed solenoidal state: three independent experiments confirm existence of a fixed polarity of the axial magnetic field or related azimuthal current. Since the equations governing plasma dynamics do not have a built-in direction, the fixed polarity must be related with initial conditions: the plasma dynamics must interact with an external physical vector in order to generate a solenoidal state of fixed polarity. Only four such external physical vectors can be identified: the earth's magnetic field, earth's angular momentum, direction of current flow and the direction of the plasma accelerator. How interaction of plasma dynamics with these fields can generate observed solenoidal state is a question still in search of answers; this paper outlines one possible answer. The importance of this question goes beyond scientific curiosity into technological uses of the energetic ions and the high-power-density plasma environment. However, commercial utilization of such technologies faces reliability concerns, which can be met only by first-principles integrated design of globally-optimized industrial-quality DPF hardware. Issues involved in the emergence of the Dense Plasma Focus as a technology platform for commercial applications in the not-too-distant future are discussed.

This supplement reports proceedings of the second international Global Urticaria Forum, which was held in Berlin, Germany in November 2015. In 2011, a report of the GA(2) LEN task force on urticaria outlined important and unanswered questions in chronic urticaria (CU). These included, but were not limited to, questions on the epidemiology and course of chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) [also called chronic idiopathic urticaria (CIU)], the resources allocated for the diagnosis and treatment of CSU, whether patients with angioedema as an isolated symptom can be regarded as a subgroup of CSU, and the efficacy and long-term safety of therapies. Many of these questions have been addressed by recent studies. Some of the answers obtained raise new questions. Here, we summarize some of the key insights on CU obtained over recent years, and we discuss old and new unmet needs and how to address them with future studies. We need to analyze the influence of recent advances in understanding of the burden of CU on patients and society, disease management and the CU patient journey. Our increased understanding of urticarial pathophysiology and consideration of the patient as a whole will need to be translated to better treatment algorithms and protocols. Actions to address these challenges include the 5th International Consensus Meeting on Urticaria, which will take place later this year. The formation of a global network of Urticaria Centers of Reference and Excellence over the next few years has also been proposed, with the aim of providing consistent excellence in urticaria management and a clear referral route, furthering knowledge of urticaria through additional research and educating/promoting awareness of urticaria. PMID:27286498

Citizens’ opinions are crucial for action on climate change, but are, owing to the complexity of the issue, diverse and potentially unformed. We contribute to the understanding of public views on climate change and to knowledge needed by decision-makers by using a new approach to analyse answers to the open survey question `what comes to mind when you hear the words `climate change’?’. We apply automated text analysis, specifically structural topic modelling, which induces distinct topics based on the relative frequencies of the words used in 2,115 responses. From these data, originating from the new, nationally representative Norwegian Citizen Panel, four distinct topics emerge: Weather/Ice, Future/Impact, Money/Consumption and Attribution. We find that Norwegians emphasize societal aspects of climate change more than do respondents in previous US and UK studies. Furthermore, variables that explain variation in closed questions, such as gender and education, yield different and surprising results when employed to explain variation in what respondents emphasize. Finally, the sharp distinction between scepticism and acceptance of conventional climate science, often seen in previous studies, blurs in many textual responses as scepticism frequently turns into ambivalence.

The current rise in the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is unfortunately not matched by new treatment options. In the last 10 years, epidemiological, preclinical and clinical data have enlightened the possible preventive action of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFA) in AD and other diseases. While the contribution of recent studies to our general knowledge is priceless, many important new questions have been raised. In the present review, we aim at addressing some of these timely interrogations. First, the transport of n-3 PUFA across the blood-brain barrier is underscored based on preclinical data. Second, the relative contribution of two neuroactive n-3 PUFA found in fish oil, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6 n-3) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 20:5 n-3), remains unclear and is reviewed. Third, clinical trials on neurodegenerative diseases consistently remind us that treating early is critical, and this is likely to be the case with n-3 PUFA in AD as well. Fourth, we draw attention to the possibility that the current knowledge translation approach to make health recommendations might have to be adapted to non-patentable endogenous compounds like n-3 PUFA. We propose that answers to these critical questions will be instrumental toward a rational use of n-3 PUFA in AD. PMID:21605051

Learning science requires higher-level (critical) thinking skills that need to be practiced in science classes. This study tested the effect of exam format on critical-thinking skills. Multiple-choice (MC) testing is common in introductory science courses, and students in these classes tend to associate memorization with MC questions and may not see the need to modify their study strategies for critical thinking, because the MC exam format has not changed. To test the effect of exam format, I used two sections of an introductory biology class. One section was assessed with exams in the traditional MC format, the other section was assessed with both MC and constructed-response (CR) questions. The mixed exam format was correlated with significantly more cognitively active study behaviors and a significantly better performance on the cumulative final exam (after accounting for grade point average and gender). There was also less gender-bias in the CR answers. This suggests that the MC-only exam format indeed hinders critical thinking in introductory science classes. Introducing CR questions encouraged students to learn more and to be better critical thinkers and reduced gender bias. However, student resistance increased as students adjusted their perceptions of their own critical-thinking abilities. PMID:22949426

A questionanswering system which permits a computer-assisted instruction (CAI) student greater initiative in the variety of questions he can ask is described. A method is presented to represent the dynamic processes of a subject matter area by augmented finite state automata, which permits efficient inferencing about dynamic processes and…

The in-class essay is not an effective means to assess student ability in a history exam. History teachers should instead ask short-answerquestions in order to test what the American Historical Association calls "objective" knowledge: the ability to identify concepts, historical actors, organizations, events, and so forth. Such questions,…

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Interactive computerized tests accepting unrestricted natural-language input were used to assess knowledge of clinical biophysics at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Comparison of responses to open-ended sequential questions and multiple-choicequestions on the same material found the two formats test different aspects of competence.…

This paper reflects on the ongoing debate surrounding the usefulness (or otherwise) of multiple-choicequestions (MCQ) as an assessment instrument. The context is a graduate school of business in Australia where an experiment was conducted to investigate the use of assertion-reason questions (ARQ), a sophisticated form of MCQ that aims to…

Asserts that William Blake's phrase, "eternity's sunrise," captures the essence of the teaching and learning enterprise. Discusses new horizons in education and teachers who are daily reinventing their teaching. Warns against adopting educational change to be fashionable. (PRA)

This thesis investigates the use of problem-specific knowledge to enhance a genetic algorithm approach to multiple-choice optimisation problems.It shows that such information can significantly enhance performance, but that the choice of information and the way it is included are important factors for success.Two multiple-choice problems are considered.The first is constructing a feasible nurse roster that considers as many requests as possible.In the second problem, shops are allocated to locations in a mall subject to constraints and maximising the overall income.Genetic algorithms are chosen for their well-known robustness and ability to solve large and complex discrete optimisation problems.However, a survey of the literature reveals room for further research into generic ways to include constraints into a genetic algorithm framework.Hence, the main theme of this work is to balance feasibility and cost of solutions.In particular, co-operative co-evolution with hierarchical sub-populations, problem structure exploiting repair schemes and indirect genetic algorithms with self-adjusting decoder functions are identified as promising approaches.The research starts by applying standard genetic algorithms to the problems and explaining the failure of such approaches due to epistasis.To overcome this, problem-specific information is added in a variety of ways, some of which are designed to increase the number of feasible solutions found whilst others are intended to improve the quality of such solutions.As well as a theoretical discussion as to the underlying reasons for using each operator,extensive computational experiments are carried out on a variety of data.These show that the indirect approach relies less on problem structure and hence is easier to implement and superior in solution quality.

As computational resources increase and better algorithms are implemented, LQCD calculations of hadronic interaction observables become less of a pipe dream, and more of a reality, and will eventually become the status quo. One of the greatest strengths of LQCD calculations in the realm of low-energy nuclear physics comes from its predictive capability, as many hadronic systems not accessible by experiments can be calculated on the lattice. These calculations in turn have direct implications to nuclear structure, nuclear reactions, and nuclear astrophysics, as well as the broader nuclear physics community. Thus the import of LQCD on low-energy nuclear physics cannot be overlooked, nor understated. In this talk I discuss current and ongoing efforts to extract hadronic interaction parameters from LQCD, enumerating current difficulties placed by available computer resources and algorithm limitations. I will also talk about future possibilities coming from increased computer resources and algorithm development, giving examples of how such calculations can answer longstanding questions in traditional nuclear physics. Finally, I will discuss the role that national labs can and should play in the area of LQCD as applied to low-energy nuclear physics.

The term off-label drug use (OLDU) is used extensively in the medical literature, continuing medical education exercises, and the media. Yet, we propose that many health care professionals have an underappreciation of its definition, prevalence, and implications. This article introduces and answers 10 questions regarding OLDU in an effort to clarify the practice's meaning, breadth of application, acceptance, and liabilities. Off-label drug use involves prescribing medications for indications, or using a dosage or dosage form, that have not been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Since the Food and Drug Administration does not regulate the practice of medicine, OLDU has become common. It occurs in every specialty of medicine, but it may be more common in areas of medicine in which the patient population is less likely to be included in clinical trials (eg, pediatric, pregnant, or psychiatric patients). Pharmaceutical companies are not allowed to promote their medications for an off-label use, which has lead to several large settlements for illegal marketing. To limit liability, physicians should prescribe medications only for indications that they believe are in the best interest of the patient. In addition, health care professionals should educate themselves about OLDU to weigh the risks and benefits and provide the best possible care for their patients. PMID:22877654

A panel of NASA and contractor senior staff, plus officers from the 45th Space Wing, discuss safety- and health-related concerns in front of an audience of KSC employees as part of Super Safety and Health Day. Moderating at the podium is Loren Shriver, deputy director for Launch & Payload Processing. Seated left to right are Burt Summerfield, associate director of the Biomedical Office; Colonel William S. Swindling, commander, 45th Medical Group, Patrick Air Force Base, Fla.; Ron Dittemore, manager, Space Shuttle Programs, Johnson Space Center; Roy Bridges, Center Director; Col. Tom Deppe, vice commander, 45th Space Wing, Patrick Air Force Base; Jim Schoefield, program manager, Payload Ground Operations, Boeing; Bill Hickman, program manager, Space Gateway Support; and Ed Adamek, vice president and associate program manager for Ground Operations, United Space Alliance. Answering a question at the microphone on the floor is Dave King, director, Shuttle Processing. The panel was one of the presentations during KSC's second annual day-long dedication to safety. Most normal work activities were suspended to allow personnel to attend related activities. The theme, 'Safety and Health Go Hand in Hand,' emphasized KSC's commitment to place the safety and health of the public, astronauts, employees and space- related resources first and foremost. Events also included a keynote address, vendor exhibits, and safety training in work groups. The keynote address and panel session were also broadcast internally over NASA television.

STS-103 Commander Curtis L. Brown Jr. answers a question from the media about the mission. As a preparation for launch, the crew have been participating in Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test (TCDT) activities at KSC. The TCDT provides the crew with emergency egress training, opportunities to inspect their mission payloads in the orbiter's payload bay, and simulated countdown exercises. Other crew members are Pilot Scott J. Kelly, and Mission Specialists Steven L. Smith, Jean-Frangois Clervoy of France, who is with the European Space Agency (ESA), John M. Grunsfeld (Ph.D.), C. Michael Foale (Ph.D.), and Claude Nicollier of Switzerland, who is also with ESA. STS-103 is a 'call-up' mission due to the need to replace and repair portions of the Hubble Space Telescope, including the gyroscopes that allow the telescope to point at stars, galaxies and planets. The STS-103 crew will be replacing a Fine Guidance Sensor, an older computer with a new enhanced model, an older data tape recorder with a solid-state digital recorder, a failed spare transmitter with a new one, and degraded insulation on the telescope with new thermal insulation. The crew will also install a Battery Voltage/Temperature Improvement Kit to protect the spacecraft batteries from overcharging and overheating when the telescope goes into a safe mode. Four EVA's are planned to make the necessary repairs and replacements on the telescope. The mission is targeted for launch Dec. 6 at 2:37 a.m. EST.

The term off-label drug use (OLDU) is used extensively in the medical literature, continuing medical education exercises, and the media. Yet, we propose that many health care professionals have an underappreciation of its definition, prevalence, and implications. This article introduces and answers 10 questions regarding OLDU in an effort to clarify the practice's meaning, breadth of application, acceptance, and liabilities. Off-label drug use involves prescribing medications for indications, or using a dosage or dosage form, that have not been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. Since the Food and Drug Administration does not regulate the practice of medicine, OLDU has become common. It occurs in every specialty of medicine, but it may be more common in areas of medicine in which the patient population is less likely to be included in clinical trials (eg, pediatric, pregnant, or psychiatric patients). Pharmaceutical companies are not allowed to promote their medications for an off-label use, which has lead to several large settlements for illegal marketing. To limit liability, physicians should prescribe medications only for indications that they believe are in the best interest of the patient. In addition, health care professionals should educate themselves about OLDU to weigh the risks and benefits and provide the best possible care for their patients. PMID:22877654

This study reports the result of an extensive nationwide review of military, private sector, and other federal agencies and organizations that are implementing a wide variety of advanced training technologies. This report classifies the general categories of advanced training technologies found and provides an overview of each, including specific types and examples. In addition, the research findings present an organizational model for training development linking overall organizational maturity to readiness to implement specific kinds of advanced training technologies. It also presents proposed methods for selecting media, describes the organizations and the data gathered, and provides a summary of implementation success at each organization. This study is organized as a set of five topics. Each topic raises a number of important questions and provides complete or emerging answers. For organizations who have made advanced training selections, this study is a resource to benchmark their success with other organizations who have made similar selections. For new or developing training organizations, this study will help plan their future technology selections by comparing their level of organizational maturity to the documented experiences of similar organizations.

The rapid pace of advances in genome technology, with concomitant reductions in cost, makes it feasible that one day in our lifetime we will have available extant genomes of entire classes of species, including vertebrates. I recently helped cocoordinate the large-scale Avian Phylogenomics Project, which collected and sequenced genomes of 48 bird species representing most currently classified orders to address a range of questions in phylogenomics and comparative genomics. The consortium was able to answerquestions not previously possible with just a few genomes. This success spurred on the creation of a project to sequence the genomes of at least one individual of all extant ∼10,500 bird species. The initiation of this project has led us to consider what questions now impossible to answer could be answered with all genomes, and could drive new questions now unimaginable. These include the generation of a highly resolved family tree of extant species, genome-wide association studies across species to identify genetic substrates of many complex traits, redefinition of species and the species concept, reconstruction of the genomes of common ancestors, and generation of new computational tools to address these questions. Here I present visions for the future by posing and answeringquestions regarding what scientists could potentially do with available genomes of an entire vertebrate class. PMID:26884102

This article examines methods for automated question classification applied to cancer-related questions that people have asked on the web. This work is part of a broader effort to provide automated questionanswering for health education. We created a new corpus of consumer-health questions related to cancer and a new taxonomy for those questions. We then compared the effectiveness of different statistical methods for developing classifiers, including weighted classification and resampling. Basic methods for building classifiers were limited by the high variability in the natural distribution of questions and typical refinement approaches of feature selection and merging categories achieved only small improvements to classifier accuracy. Best performance was achieved using weighted classification and resampling methods, the latter yielding an accuracy of F1 = 0.963. Thus, it would appear that statistical classifiers can be trained on natural data, but only if natural distributions of classes are smoothed. Such classifiers would be useful for automated questionanswering, for enriching web-based content, or assisting clinical professionals to answerquestions. PMID:25759063

Introduction: Multiple-choice-examinations are still fundamental for assessment in medical degree programs. In addition to content related research, the optimization of the technical procedure is an important question. Medical examiners face three options: paper-based examinations with or without computer support or completely electronic examinations. Critical aspects are the effort for formatting, the logistic effort during the actual examination, quality, promptness and effort of the correction, the time for making the documents available for inspection by the students, and the statistical analysis of the examination results. Methods: Since three semesters a computer program for input and formatting of MC-questions in medical and other paper-based examinations is used and continuously improved at Wuerzburg University. In the winter semester (WS) 2009/10 eleven, in the summer semester (SS) 2010 twelve and in WS 2010/11 thirteen medical examinations were accomplished with the program and automatically evaluated. For the last two semesters the remaining manual workload was recorded. Results: The cost of the formatting and the subsequent analysis including adjustments of the analysis of an average examination with about 140 participants and about 35 questions was 5-7 hours for exams without complications in the winter semester 2009/2010, about 2 hours in SS 2010 and about 1.5 hours in the winter semester 2010/11. Including exams with complications, the average time was about 3 hours per exam in SS 2010 and 2.67 hours for the WS 10/11. Discussion: For conventional multiple-choice exams the computer-based formatting and evaluation of paper-based exams offers a significant time reduction for lecturers in comparison with the manual correction of paper-based exams and compared to purely electronically conducted exams it needs a much simpler technological infrastructure and fewer staff during the exam. PMID:22205913

One challenge in science education assessment is that students often focus on surface features of questions rather than the underlying scientific principles. We investigated how student written responses to constructed-response questions about photosynthesis vary based on two surface features of the question: the species of plant and the order of…

Marine renewable energy (MRE) projects are increasingly occupying the European North-Atlantic coasts and this is clearly observed in the North Sea. Given the expected impacts on the marine environment, each individual project is accompanied by a legally mandatory, environmental monitoring programme. These programmes are focused on the resultant effects on ecosystem component structure (e.g. species composition, numbers and densities) of single industrial projects. To date, there is a tendency to further narrow down to only a selection of ecosystem components (e.g. marine mammals and birds). While a wide knowledge-based understanding of structural impacts on (a selection of) ecosystem components exists, this evidence is largely lacking when undertaking impact assessments at the ecosystem functioning level (e.g. trophic interactions, dispersal and nutrient cycling). This critical knowledge gap compromises a scientifically-underpinned answer to the "so what" question of environmental impacts, i.e. whether the observed impacts are considered to be good or bad, or acceptable or unacceptable. The importance of ecosystem functioning is further acknowledged in the descriptors 4 and 6 of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (EU MSFD) and is at the heart of a sustainable use and management of our marine resources. There hence is a fundamental need to focus on ecosystem functioning at the spatial scales at which marine ecosystems function when assessing MRE impacts. Here, we make a plea for an increased investment in a large (spatial) scale impact assessment of MRE projects focused on ecosystem functioning. This presentation will cover a selection of examples from North Sea MRE monitoring programmes, where the current knowledge has limited conclusions on the "so what" question. We will demonstrate how an ecosystem functioning-focused approach at an appropriate spatial scale could advance our current understanding, whilst assessing these issues. These examples will cover

Multiple-choice exams are frequently used as an efficient and objective method to assess learning, but they are more vulnerable to answer copying than tests based on open questions. Several statistical tests (known as indices in the literature) have been proposed to detect cheating; however, to the best of our knowledge, they all lack mathematical…

Introduction: Little is known about the quality of health information in social contexts or how socio-emotional factors impact users' evaluations of quality. We explored how librarians, nurses and users assessed the quality of health answers posted on Yahoo! Answers, focusing on socio-emotional reactions displayed, advice given to users and…

The communication processes of knowledge creation represent a particular class of human dynamics where the expertise of individuals plays a substantial role, thus offering a unique possibility to study the structure of knowledge networks from online data. Here, we use the empirical evidence from questions-and-answers in mathematics to analyse the emergence of the network of knowledge contents (or tags) as the individual experts use them in the process. After removing extra edges from the network-associated graph, we apply the methods of algebraic topology of graphs to examine the structure of higher-order combinatorial spaces in networks for four consecutive time intervals. We find that the ranking distributions of the suitably scaled topological dimensions of nodes fall into a unique curve for all time intervals and filtering levels, suggesting a robust architecture of knowledge networks. Moreover, these networks preserve the logical structure of knowledge within emergent communities of nodes, labeled according to a standard mathematical classification scheme. Further, we investigate the appearance of new contents over time and their innovative combinations, which expand the knowledge network. In each network, we identify an innovation channel as a subgraph of triangles and larger simplices to which new tags attach. Our results show that the increasing topological complexity of the innovation channels contributes to network’s architecture over different time periods, and is consistent with temporal correlations of the occurrence of new tags. The methodology applies to a wide class of data with the suitable temporal resolution and clearly identified knowledge-content units. PMID:27171149

The communication processes of knowledge creation represent a particular class of human dynamics where the expertise of individuals plays a substantial role, thus offering a unique possibility to study the structure of knowledge networks from online data. Here, we use the empirical evidence from questions-and-answers in mathematics to analyse the emergence of the network of knowledge contents (or tags) as the individual experts use them in the process. After removing extra edges from the network-associated graph, we apply the methods of algebraic topology of graphs to examine the structure of higher-order combinatorial spaces in networks for four consecutive time intervals. We find that the ranking distributions of the suitably scaled topological dimensions of nodes fall into a unique curve for all time intervals and filtering levels, suggesting a robust architecture of knowledge networks. Moreover, these networks preserve the logical structure of knowledge within emergent communities of nodes, labeled according to a standard mathematical classification scheme. Further, we investigate the appearance of new contents over time and their innovative combinations, which expand the knowledge network. In each network, we identify an innovation channel as a subgraph of triangles and larger simplices to which new tags attach. Our results show that the increasing topological complexity of the innovation channels contributes to network's architecture over different time periods, and is consistent with temporal correlations of the occurrence of new tags. The methodology applies to a wide class of data with the suitable temporal resolution and clearly identified knowledge-content units. PMID:27171149

Summer Geophysics Field Camp is part of the core requirement for undergraduate Geophysics majors at Boise State University (CSM), as well as at Colorado School of Mines (CSM). We have found it to be most effectively taught when the target of the camp involves answeringquestions, which impact society. For example, currently the CSM/BSU geophysics summer camp focuses on ground water resources and geothermal potential in the Upper Arkansas River Basin, a part of the Rio Grande Rift system in Chaffee County, Colorado. A prime goal is to train students how to combine diverse sources of information into a unified interpretation: Students examine lithologies and structures on the periphery of the basin. Cross sections are constructed to predict the geophysical signature. Geophysical tools then are used to ascertain the gross structure and examine subsurface conditions in greater detail. These tools include surveying, regional gravity, deep and shallow seismic surveys, magnetics, DC resistivity, Ground Penetrating Radar, electromagnetics, hydrochemistry, and karaoke. While BSU and CSM own a considerable amount of geophysical hardware, our field camps are only possible because of extensive support by corporations and governmental agencies. In addition, the Society of Exploration Geohysics (SEG) Foundation provides financial support, Chaffee County assists with housing costs, and local land owners provide open access. In turn, the field camp results aid the community of Chaffee County in assessing their water resources for long term growth planning, as well as understanding the geothermal potential for hydroelectric power generation. BSU is currently exploring with the SEG Foundation under the Geophysicists Without Borders program to apply this model of combined education and social outreach in the form a geophysics camp for Southeast Asia, where we propose to study geohazards,geoarcheology and groundwater issues.

Professionals in the fields of nursing, education, health care, recreation, and social work, who specialize in dealing with Alzheimer's disease, wrote answers to questions collected from discussion sessions held at four Pennsylvania elder facilities and made suggestions for talking to young people about the disease and its impact. This guidebook…

Assessment is an important aspect of medical education because it tests students' competence and motivates them to study. Various assessment methods, with and without images, are used in the study of anatomy. In this study, we investigated the use of extended matching questions (EMQs). To gain insight into the influence of images on the validity of test items, we focused on students' cognitive processes while they answeredquestions with and without images. Seventeen first-year medical students answered EMQs about gross anatomy, combined with either labeled images or answer lists, while thinking aloud. The participants' verbal reports were transcribed verbatim and then coded. Initial codes were based on a task analysis and were adapted into final codes during the coding process. Results showed that students used more cues from EMQs with images and visualized more often in EMQs with answer lists. Ready knowledge and verbal reasoning were used equally often in both conditions. In conclusion, EMQs with and without images elicit different results in this think aloud experiment, indicating different cognitive processes. They seem to measure different skills, making them valid for different testing purposes. The take-home message for anatomy teachers is that questions without images seem to test the quality of students' mental images while questions with images test their ability to interpret visual information. It makes sense to use both response formats in tests. Using images from clinical practice instead of anatomical drawings will help to improve test validity. PMID:23813919

... disabled as defined in 38 CFR 3.340 or 3.342 on January 1, 1976 or January 1, 1977. If retired on... Veterans Administration show that the taxpayer was permanently and totally disabled as defined in 38 CFR 3... 26 Internal Revenue 14 2011-04-01 2010-04-01 true Questions and answers relating to exclusions...

A natural language based system has been used to author and mark short-answer free-text assessment tasks. Students attempt the questions online and are given tailored and relatively detailed feedback on incorrect and incomplete responses, and have the opportunity to repeat the task immediately so as to learn from the feedback provided. The answer…

... on pensions, annuities, and certain other deferred income. 35.3405-1 Section 35.3405-1 Internal... withholding on pensions, annuities, and certain other deferred income. The following questions and answers relate to withholding on pensions, annuities, and other deferred income under section 3405 of...

... on pensions, annuities, and certain other deferred income. 35.3405-1 Section 35.3405-1 Internal... withholding on pensions, annuities, and certain other deferred income. The following questions and answers relate to withholding on pensions, annuities, and other deferred income under section 3405 of...

As K-12 schools connect to the Internet, a new means of communication opens up to educators and students. This updated digest describes some sample services and resources available to the K-12 community via electronic mail. Information sources covered include: questionanswering services, including AskERIC and the Online Writing Lab; listservs or…

As K-12 schools connect to the Internet, a new method of communication opens up to educators and their students. This ERIC Digest describes some sample services and resources that are available to the K-12 community by electronic mail over the Internet. QuestionAnswering services, listservs, and Usenet newsgroups are listed. (Author/AEF)

... returns relating to foreclosures and abandonments of security (temporary). 1.6050J-1T Section 1.6050J-1T... returns relating to foreclosures and abandonments of security (temporary). The following questions and answers relate to the requirement of reporting foreclosures and abandonments of security under...

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... returns relating to foreclosures and abandonments of security (temporary). 1.6050J-1T Section 1.6050J-1T... returns relating to foreclosures and abandonments of security (temporary). The following questions and answers relate to the requirement of reporting foreclosures and abandonments of security under...

This book provides answers to the most common legal questions of Nevada's school board members, administrators, and educators. Chapter 1, "The Nevada School System: Governance, Programs, and Standards," explores the constitutional, legal, and statutory basis of school system governance. Chapter 2, "The Nevada Plan: Finance of Public Education,"…

... fiduciary responsibility under the Act, thereby supplementing ERISA IB 75-5 (29 CFR 2555.75-5) which was...). The Internal Revenue Service has indicated its concurrence with the answers to these questions. D-2 Q... fiduciaries within the meaning of section 4975(e)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. D-3 Q: Does...

In May 1997 and March 1998, the Midwest Center for Postsecondary Outreach, in conjunction with St. Paul Technical College, hosted a video teleconference in which four other professionals and the authors appeared. Although they answered some of the questions submitted, due to time constraints, they were unable to respond to a number of the…

This article reports on an exploratory study of giving medals as part of a peer rating system in a question-and-answer (Q&A) study group on Python, a programming language. There are no professional teachers tutoring learners. The study aimed to understand whether and how medals, awarded to responses in a peer-based learning environment, can…

This policy brief presents a strong case for the creation of a statewide teacher data system in California by highlighting some of the simple teacher workforce questions that cannot be answered because such a system does not currently exist. At the state level, data on teacher qualifications are needed to fulfill the new reporting requirements of…

This document was prepared in response to inquiries that have been received by the Environmental Protection Agency concerning the reinspection requirements and related provisions of the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA) regulations. The answers developed represent the Agency's responses to the 15 most frequently asked questions to…

This collection of manuals contains the Manitoba Provincial Chemistry Examination for students seeking credit in Senior 4 Chemistry (Chemistry 300) and instructions for its use and grading. The examination is based on the Core Topics of the Senior 4 Chemistry course and accounts for 30% of the student's final grade in the course. The examination…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether multiple-choice item difficulty could be predicted either by a subjective judgment by the question author or by applying a learning taxonomy to the items. Eight physiology faculty members teaching an upper-level undergraduate human physiology course consented to participate in the study. The…

Objective testing techniques, such as multiple-choice examinations, are a widely accepted method of assessment in gross anatomy. In order to deter cheating on these types of examinations, instructors often design several versions of an examination to distribute. These versions usually involve the rearrangement of questions and their corresponding…

Learning science requires higher-level (critical) thinking skills that need to be practiced in science classes. This study tested the effect of exam format on critical-thinking skills. Multiple-choice (MC) testing is common in introductory science courses, and students in these classes tend to associate memorization with MC questions and may not…

On 4 of 7 days in each unit of an undergraduate human development course, students responded in writing to specific questions related to instructor notes previously made available to them. The study compared the effects of three writing contingencies on the quality of student writing and performance on major multiple-choice exams in the course. …

I propose three guided questions for reflection as a jumpstart organizational formula for students with poor writing application skills to follow when responding to an open-ended question. The recipe prescribes that the student (1) understand the question design, (2) identify the intent or objective of the question, and (3) proceed to identify the…

Communication is frequently characterized by a sequence of questions and answers. Little is known about how well students who are deaf or hard of hearing (deaf/HH) understand their hearing classmates in the context of an inclusive setting. This study explored the communication skills used by deaf/HH children when asking and answeringquestions in a "trivia" game with their hearing peers. Thirty-four children with normal hearing and 34 children with a hearing loss ranging from mild to profound (>90 dB HL) participated in this study. Each of the 34 dyads included 1 child with normal hearing and 1 child with hearing loss, matched by gender and grade level at school. Dyads were videotaped and analyzed. Pairs were compared in terms of their capacity to repeat the question, strategies used to seek information, and accuracy of responses. Results showed that the group of hearing children was able to repeat more questions verbatim compared to the deaf/HH children. The deaf/HH group required a significantly greater number of repetitions, sought a greater number of general clarifications, and correctly answered more questions compared with the group of hearing children. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of peer communication and pragmatic skill development. PMID:20299450

Objective To evaluate existing automatic speech-recognition (ASR) systems to measure their performance in interpreting spoken clinical questions and to adapt one ASR system to improve its performance on this task. Design and measurements The authors evaluated two well-known ASR systems on spoken clinical questions: Nuance Dragon (both generic and medical versions: Nuance Gen and Nuance Med) and the SRI Decipher (the generic version SRI Gen). The authors also explored language model adaptation using more than 4000 clinical questions to improve the SRI system's performance, and profile training to improve the performance of the Nuance Med system. The authors reported the results with the NIST standard word error rate (WER) and further analyzed error patterns at the semantic level. Results Nuance Gen and Med systems resulted in a WER of 68.1% and 67.4% respectively. The SRI Gen system performed better, attaining a WER of 41.5%. After domain adaptation with a language model, the performance of the SRI system improved 36% to a final WER of 26.7%. Conclusion Without modification, two well-known ASR systems do not perform well in interpreting spoken clinical questions. With a simple domain adaptation, one of the ASR systems improved significantly on the clinical question task, indicating the importance of developing domain/genre-specific ASR systems. PMID:21705457

Based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, human endeavours concern primarily existential needs, consequently, to be safeguarded against both natural as well as man made threads. The subsequent needs are to realize chances in a variety of fields, as economics and many others. Independently, the 5 crucial questions are the same as for coping with risks due to natural hazards specifically. These 5 key questions are I) What is the impact in function of space and time ? II) What protection measures comply with the general opinion and how much do they mitigate the threat? III) How can the loss be adequately quantified and monetized ? IV) What budget for prevention and reserves for restoration and compensation are to be planned ? V) Which mix of measures and allocation of resources is sustainable, thus, optimal ? The 5 answers, exemplified by a case study, concerning the sustainable management of risk due to the debris flows by the Enterbach / Inzing / Tirol / Austria, are as follows : I) The impact, created by both the propagation of flooding and sedimentation, has been forecasted by modeling (numerical simulation) the 30, 50, 100, 150, 300 and 1000 year debris flow. The input was specified by detailed studies in meteorology, precipitation and runoff, in geology, hydrogeology, geomorphology and slope stability, in hydraulics, sediment transport and debris flow, in forestry, agriculture and development of communal settlement and infrastructure. All investigations were performed according to the method of ETAlp (Erosion and Transport in Alpine systems). ETAlp has been developed in order to achieve a sustainable development in alpine areas and has been evaluated by the research project "nab", within the context of the EU-Interreg IIIb projects. II) The risk mitigation measures of concern are in hydraulics at the one hand and in forestry at the other hand. Such risk management is evaluated according to sustainability, which means economic, ecologic and social, in short, "triple

Multiple-choice tests are commonly used in educational settings but with unknown effects on students' knowledge. The authors examined the consequences of taking a multiple-choice test on a later general knowledge test in which students were warned not to guess. A large positive testing effect was obtained: Prior testing of facts aided final…

Auditory comprehension is commonly measured with multiplechoice tasks. The sensitivity of these tasks in identifying deficits, however, is limited by credit given for correct guesses by forced choice. In this study, we compare performance on the multiplechoice task to an alternative word/picture verification task, in 122 subjects with acute left…

The humble multiple-choice test is very widely used within education at all levels, but its susceptibility to guesswork makes it a suboptimal assessment tool. The reliability of a multiple-choice test is partly governed by the number of items it contains; however, longer tests are more time consuming to take, and for some subject areas, it can be…

Nested logit item response models for multiple-choice data are presented. Relative to previous models, the new models are suggested to provide a better approximation to multiple-choice items where the application of a solution strategy precedes consideration of response options. In practice, the models also accommodate collapsibility across all…

QUESTIONS ARE RAISED CONCERNING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE MOTT FOUNDATION PROGRAM, THE FLINT BOARD OF EDUCATION, THE COST OF THE PROGRAM, AND THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE COMMUNITY SCHOOL PROGRAM. QUESTIONS PERTAINING TO THE COMMUNITY SCHOOL DIRECTOR RANGE FROM HIS ROLE TO HIS ON-THE-JOB TRAINING. QUESTIONS PERTAINING TO ADULT EDUCATION AND THE…

Students in introductory programming classes often articulate their questions and information needs incompletely. Consequently, the automatic classification of student questions to provide automated tutorial responses is a challenging problem. This dissertation analyzes 411 questions from an introductory Java programming course by reducing the…

Students in introductory programming classes often articulate their questions and information needs incompletely. Consequently, the automatic classification of student questions to provide automated tutorial responses is a challenging problem. This dissertation analyzes 411 questions from an introductory Java programming course by reducing the natural language of the questions to a vector space, and then utilizing cosine similarity to identify similar previous questions. I report classification accuracies between 23% and 56%, obtaining substantial improvements by exploiting domain knowledge (compiler error messages) and educational context (assignment name). My results are especially timely and relevant for online courses where students are completing the same set of assignments asynchronously and access to staff is limited.

This document contains brief answers to some of the most frequently raised issues related to running a small Vermont public library. Areas covered include accessibility, the American Library Association, automation, awards, binding, services for the blind and physically handicapped, the Board of Libraries, the Board of Trustees, book dealers, book…

.... Background In the Federal Register of July 9, 2009 (74 FR 33030), FDA issued a final rule requiring shell egg... Answers Regarding the Final Rule, Prevention of Salmonella Enteritidis in Shell Eggs During Production... Regarding the Final Rule, Prevention of Salmonella Enteritidis in Shell Eggs During Production, Storage,...

This study investigates whether the practice of answer changing on multiple-choicequestions (MCQs) is beneficial to Gulf Arab students' overall test performance. The proficiency exam used in this study is the Michigan English Language Institute College English Test - Grammar, Cloze, Vocabulary, Reading (MELICET-GCVR), which was developed using…

The recall of information about Hepatitis B demonstrated by 180 seventh graders was tested with three test types: (1) short-answer; (2) true/false; and (3) multiple-choice. Short answer testing was the most reliable. Suggestions are made for the use of short-answer tests in evaluating student knowledge. (SLD)

This study presents an experiment that explores the patterns of answers to yes-no truth-functional questions in English and Korean. The answering patterns are examined from 12 Korean-English bilingual children and 10 Korean-monolingual children. Four types of sentences in relation to given situations (Wason in Br J Psychol 52:133-142, 1961) were provided as questions such as true affirmative (TA), true negative (TN), false affirmative (FA), and false negative (FN). The bilingual children's answers were observed in separate language settings, English and Korean. The results by the bilingual in the Korean setting were compared with those by the monolinguals. The results show that bilingual children can process two systems rather successfully by providing correct responses to the given questions. But difficulty patterns, measured from error rates in each setting, are found different in two languages. The bilinguals' difficulty patterns in English and Korean, however, show deviation from monolinguals' difficulty patterns suggested in previous studies (Wason in Br J Psychol 52:133-142, 1961, Akiyama in Dev Psychol 20:219-228, 1984, Kim in Dev Psychol 21(3):462-472, 1985, Choi in Dev Psychol 29(3):407-420, 1991). The present work also shows that negatives are not uniformly reported with more errors than affirmatives when the truth condition and the answering system are further involved. All in all, the current study suggests that bilingual children have two separate processing systems for yes-no truth-functional questions. However, the two systems cannot be understood as a simple coexistence of two monolingual systems. Interaction of the two competing linguistic systems is discussed further. PMID:23639994

This study was to determine reliability and validity for a two-tiered, multiple- choice instrument designed to identify alternative conceptions in earth science. Additionally, this study sought to identify alternative conceptions in earth science held by preservice teachers, to investigate relationships between self-reported confidence scores and understanding of earth science concepts, and to describe relationships between content knowledge and alternative conceptions and planning instruction in the science classroom. Eighty-seven preservice teachers enrolled in the MAT program participated in this study. Sixty-eight participants were female, twelve were male, and seven chose not to answer. Forty-seven participants were in the elementary certification program, five were in the middle school certification program, and twenty-nine were pursuing secondary certification. Results indicate that the two-tiered, multiple-choice format can be a reliable and valid method for identifying alternative conceptions. Preservice teachers in all certification areas who participated in this study may possess common alternative conceptions previously identified in the literature. Alternative conceptions included: all rivers flow north to south, the shadow of the Earth covers the Moon causing lunar phases, the Sun is always directly overhead at noon, weather can be predicted by animal coverings, and seasons are caused by the Earth's proximity to the Sun. Statistical analyses indicated differences, however not all of them significant, among all subgroups according to gender and certification area. Generally males outperformed females and preservice teachers pursuing middle school certification had higher scores on the questionnaire followed by those obtaining secondary certification. Elementary preservice teachers scored the lowest. Additionally, self-reported scores of confidence in one's answers and understanding of the earth science concept in question were analyzed. There was a

Three different samples of students were asked to answer five multiple-choicequestions concerning the properties of a sample of helium gas (particle speed, state of matter, sample volume, sample pressure, and particle distribution), including a particulate question first used by Nurrenbern and Pickering (particle distribution). In the first…

This column, part of a series of commonly asked questions on library law, completes discussion of two previous columns on common questions about the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Highlights include: procedures if a request for records is denied; appealing a denial of records; how FOIA is enforced and interpreted by the courts; personal…

Responsiveness-to-intervention (RTI) is the front-running candidate to replace current practice in diagnosing learning disabilities, but researchers have identified several questions about implementation. Specific questions include: Are there validated intervention models? Are there adequately trained personnel? What leadership is needed? When…

The Sloan Work and Family Research Network has prepared Fact Sheets that provide statistical answers to some important questions about work-family and work-life issues. This Fact Sheet includes statistics about Children in Self-Care, and answers the following questions about school-age children in self-care: (1) How many school-age children are in…

Congress of the U.S., Washington, DC. Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare.

This booklet contains questions and answers concerning the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, an analysis of the Act by the Congressional Research Service, and a copy of the actual text. The question and answer section provides information about the rationale for the Act, the amount of money available for its implementation, as well as its…

Background Although simulation-based teaching is popular, high-fidelity, high-cost approaches may be unsuitable or unavailable for use with large groups. We designed a multiple-choice test for large groups of medical students to explore a low-cost approach in assessing clinical competence. We tested two different scenarios in assessing student’s ability to identify heart and lung sounds: by hearing the sounds alone, or in an enhanced scenario where sounds are incorporated into clinical vignettes to give clinical context. Method The two-section test consists of multiple-choicequestions with one best answer. In the first section, the student must identify 25 auscultation sounds from amongst a choice of 14 heart sounds and 11 lung-sounds. The second section integrates these same sounds into clinical vignettes to provide clinical context. Students must either identify the illness or the next clinical step, choosing from four possible answers. Performances of 859 students were evaluated. Results The alpha coefficient of reliability is 0.54 and 0.76 respectively for the first and the second section. In the latter section there is significant difference between scores of first, second, fourth year students and residents, in contrast to the first-section scores. Conclusions A multiple-choice test to assess clinical competence based on simulated auscultation sounds incorporated into clinical vignettes allows us to differentiate between training levels and seems to be a valid assessment method suitable for large-group format. PMID:26451229

The concept of assigning partial credit on multiple-choice test items is considered for items from ACS Exams. Because the items on these exams, particularly the quantitative items, use common student errors to define incorrect answers, it is possible to assign partial credits to some of these incorrect responses. To do so, however, it becomes…

Multiple-choice testing is an educational reality. Rather than complain about the negative impact these tests may have on teaching and learning, why not use them to better understand your students' true mathematical knowledge and comprehension? Maryann Wickett and Eunice Hendrix-Martin show teachers how to move beyond the student's answer--right…

EPA is providing the document to promote better understanding of CERCLA and EPCRA release notification requirements and Reportable Quantity (RQ) adjustment issues. Questions are organized by broad subject categories. The table of contents lists topics addressed in each subject section. An index helps the reader locate questions according to key words or issues, and a regulatory index lists topic areas with corresponding regulatory citations where topics are addressed in more detail.

Human papillomavirus (HPV) is responsible for a rising proportion of oropharyngeal squamous cell cancers (OSCCs). HPV-positive OSCCs (HPV-OSCCs) are associated with oral HPV infection and sexual behavior. Patient questions regarding risk factors, prognosis and implications for past, present and future relationships often arise. This manuscript addresses frequently asked questions by patients with HPV-OSCC and their families. A framework for clinicians to address these conversations and the limitations of our present knowledge base is also presented. PMID:23876627

Science instructors need questions for use in exams, homework assignments, class discussions, reviews, and other instructional activities. Textbooks never have enough questions, so instructors must find them from other sources or generate their own questions. In order to supply instructors with biology questions, a semantic network approach was developed for generating open response biology questions. The generated questions were compared to professional authorized questions. To boost students' learning experience, adaptive selection was built on the generated questions. Bayesian Knowledge Tracing was used as embedded assessment of the student's current competence so that a suitable question could be selected based on the student's previous performance. A between-subjects experiment with 42 participants was performed, where half of the participants studied with adaptive selected questions and the rest studied with mal-adaptive order of questions. Both groups significantly improved their test scores, and the participants in adaptive group registered larger learning gains than participants in the control group. To explore the possibility of generating rich instructional feedback for machine-generated questions, a question-paragraph mapping task was identified. Given a set of questions and a list of paragraphs for a textbook, the goal of the task was to map the related paragraphs to each question. An algorithm was developed whose performance was comparable to human annotators. A multiple-choicequestion with high quality distractors (incorrect answers) can be pedagogically valuable as well as being much easier to grade than open-response questions. Thus, an algorithm was developed to generate good distractors for multiple-choicequestions. The machine-generated multiple-choicequestions were compared to human-generated questions in terms of three measures: question difficulty, question discrimination and distractor usefulness. By recruiting 200 participants from

Discusses rationale for and use of multiplechoice examinations in material balances, unit operations, reactor design, and process control courses. Describes computer scoring of student reaction to, and future plans for these examinations. (SK)

The questions facing clinicians with patients with sleep disorder and epilepsy are addressed in this article. Both adult and child epilepsy are discussed in the context of the most typical questions a clinician would have, such as "Are parasomnias more common in people with epilepsy?", "Is sleep architecture abnormal in children with epilepsy", along with outcomes of numerous questionnaire-based, case-based, and double-blind placebo studies on such aspects as sleep duration, daytime sleepiness, anxiety and fears, limb movement, nocturnal seizures, agitation, behavioral disorders, and learning disorders. PMID:25455580

... 2007'' and gave interested parties an opportunity to submit comments by July 27, 2009 (74 FR 27803... FR 46434). This draft guidance is the second edition of that guidance entitled ``Questions and... Registry is to provide a ``reliable mechanism to track patterns of adulteration in food would...

Considers the ethical issues surrounding the "simplest" case of in vitro fertilization from the author's interpretation of a Catholic perspective. Discusses serious moral objections to in vitro fertilization voiced by the Vatican, and presents theological reasons why Catholics should question in vitro fertilization. (Author/NB)

After the sweep of the three preceding articles, the author responds to the questions posed in the first article, concluding that a turn towards a practical-reflexive position can, over the medium term, solve the tensions which the positivist conceptions have created between knowledge and professional action. A bibliography for all four articles is included. PMID:16304828

The purpose of this paper is to review current issues in pre- and primary school reform and to pose questions on the long-term implications of present day solutions. Such an exercise will open up discussion on the probable effects of educational policy decisions with a view to minimize negative effects brought on by new policies. Because data…

Four basic propositions lead to significant questions concerning government-university relations: (1) The nation needs an increasing supply of college graduates in all fields. So far, the financial implications of such a commitment have not been grasped. (2) Although the existing structure of higher education represents a sizeable investment,…

The question that Eric Jensen addresses in his article is whether brain research can provide a basis for educational practice. He debates John Bruer, president of the James S. McDonnell Foundation, and argues that brain research can, in fact, provide a basis for what educators do. Most of Jensen's article is devoted to showing ways in which brain…

Learning can be engaged by dialectic, that is, by identifying pros and cons that inhere in propositions, and more generally, by raising questions about the validity of claims. We report here on a classroom case study of dialectical constructivist pedagogy: Students created dialectical analyses of two lectures and four books as core activities in a…

Recent reviews of the literature demonstrate that there is little research providing insight into the nature of hospital communication. Using the model of the sociology of communication, five specific research questions can be generated about hospital communication: (1) How is information processed? (2) What communication is satisfying? (3) What…

"Don't know" (DK) responses to interview questions are conceptually heterogeneous, and may represent uncertainty or clear statements about the contents of memory. A study examined the subjective intent of DK responses in relation to the objective status of information queried, in the context of memory distorting procedures. Participants viewed a…

Since 2002, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has spurred far-reaching changes in elementary and secondary education, all aimed at accomplishing the same fundamental goal--to improve students' academic achievement. As the Congress prepares to reauthorize the Act, two related questions matter most: (1) Has student achievement in reading and…

Rape prevention programmers and researchers have long struggled to select the most appropriate theoretical models to frame their work. Questions abound regarding appropriate standards of evidence for success of program interventions. The present article provides an alternative point of view to the one put forward by seven staff members from the…

Readers with autism (ASD), poor comprehension (PC), and typical development (TD) took part in three reading experiments requiring the production of inferences. In Experiments 1 and 2 reading times for target phrases-placed immediately after text implicitly indicating the emotion of a protagonist or after a number of filler sentences, respectively--were used as measures of inferencing. In Experiment 3, participants were explicitly asked to identify the protagonist's emotion. There were no significant differences among groups in Experiment 1. Compared to TD readers, the PC group performed poorly in Experiments 2 and 3. ASD readers performed worse than PC participants only in the explicit-question task. Although ASD readers can produce inferences, they respond to questions about them with difficulty. PMID:26547920

This study examines the extent to which 70 Kuwaiti EFL learners are aware of the formation rules of tag questions in English. It also investigates whether the English proficiency level of the participants contributes to their correct answers on the test. For this purpose, the researchers used a multiple-choice test to measure the participants'…

Nitrate levels in the ground-water aquifer underlying the central Oregon city of La Pine and the surrounding area are increasing due to contamination from residential septic systems. This contamination has public health implications because ground water is the sole source of drinking water for area residents. The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with Deschutes County and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, studied the movement and chemistry of nitrate in the aquifer and developed computer models that can be used to predict future nitrate levels and to evaluate alternatives for protecting water quality. This fact sheet summarizes the results of that study in the form of questions and answers.